“WASHINGTON — Responding to the growing furor over the paychecks of executives at companies that received billions of dollars in federal bailouts, the Obama administration will order the companies that received the most aid to deeply slash the compensation to their highest paid executives, an official involved in the decision said on Wednesday.
“Under the plan, which will be announced in the next few days by the Treasury Department, the seven companies that received the most assistance will have to cut the cash payouts to their 25 best-paid executives by an average of about 90 percent from last year. For many of the executives, the cash they would have received will be replaced by stock that they will be restricted from selling immediately.
“And for the 25 best-paid executives, the total compensation, which includes bonuses, will drop, on average, by about 50 percent.
“At the financial products division of A.I.G., the locus of problems that plagued the large insurer and forced its rescue with more than $180 billion in taxpayer assistance, no top executive will receive more than $200,000 in total compensation, a stunning decline from previous years in which the unit produced many wealthy executives and traders.
“In contrast to previous years, an official said, executives in the financial products division will receive no other compensation, like stocks or stock options.” ….
“Washington – Democrats launched a drive at both ends of the Capitol on Wednesday to strip the insurance industry of its decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws, part of an increasingly bare-knuckled struggle over landmark health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama.
“If enacted, the change would put an end to “price-fixing, bid-rigging and market allocation in the health and medical malpractice” insurance areas, said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy said he would seek a vote on the plan when the Senate debates health care legislation in the next few weeks.
“Leahy made his comments at the same time the House Judiciary Committee voted 20-9 to end an industry exemption that dates to 1945. Three Republicans supported the move.”
Read more on the Democrats call for stripping the anti-trust exemption for health insurors, here.
“America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.
“In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.” ….
The waiting is the hardest part, Salon, October 21, 2009, by Mike Madden: “Don’t worry, Senate Democrats and the White House say, healthcare negotiations will be done soon enough.”
Democrats Hold Lead in Political Ballot, Taegan Goddards Political Wire, October 20, 2009, by Taegan Goddard: “Greg Sargeant digs through the internals of the new Washington Post/ABC News poll and finds the GOP is ‘in the same position as it was heading into the 2008 and 2006 elections, both of which resulted in crippling landslide losses for the Republican Party.’”
Costs of the Freak Show, Talking Points Memo Editor’s Blog, October 19, 2009, by Josh Marshall: “The Secret Service is getting tasked with investigating so many different threats to President Obama’s life that it lacks the budget and staff to keep up with them all.”
Update: Pentagon gives 3,500 Iowa troops orders to Afghanistan, The DesMoines Register, October 20, 2009: “About 3,500 Iowa National Guard soldiers from 31 communities are scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan later next year for a deployment that will touch families, employers and many other people statewide, military officials said today.”
“A preliminary analysis from CBO may have sealed the deal. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to move ahead with a ‘robust’ public option–one that reimburses hospitals and providers at Medicare rates, plus five percent–in the House’s health care bill. She is briefing her caucus about the plan’s savings tonight, and, pending the approval of a sufficient majority of members, will adopt the measure as part of the complete reform package.
“The analysis finds the reconstituted House proposal to be deficit neutral, and require about $870 billion in new spending, over ten years.
“The bill remains nominally more expensive than the Senate Finance Committee proposal, but would cover 96 percent of all Americans, providing greater bang for each federal dollar spent. And, aides note, the bill that comes to the floor of the Senate will be a hybrid of the Finance and more expensive HELP Committee bills, so the price is expected to rise.
“The move is sure to make progressives ecstatic, and puts Senate leaders, who have been unable to reach any decisions about a public option in their own bill, in an uncomfortable position.” ….
See Nelson: Public Option May Be Popular, But Opt-Outs Are Really Popular, Talking Points Memo, October 20, 2009, by Brian Beutler: Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE): “‘Well, there are different kinds of public options…. What was interesting in the poll numbers that I saw, that while there’s support for public option generally, generically, when you start talking about it specifically as it relates to states being able to opt out or opt in, have their own, the support overwhelmingly goes up to 76 percent.’”
COMMENT by Paul Evans: While opt-outs by states are popular, at least these don’t represent the false non-options comprised by Co-ops or triggers. If that is absolutely necessary to get this bill passed with SOME kind of a public option in the Senate, I guess we would have to live with that. Then let the Neanderthals in the Repuglican states vote the option down for their individual states. Stupid idiots — if they’re too stupid to support it in their states, I guess they’ll have to live without it. Mind you, the Pelosi House bill is NOT going to have opt outs in it. The problem is the Senate (there are five Blue Dog Democrats in the Senate who don’t seem to be able to convince themselves to support any public option. And Harry Reid isn’t helping matters: he’s playing coy and trying to smell what way the wind is blowing. The man doesn’t have half the backbone that Nancy Pelosi does!
Let’s say “HI” to Senator Reid, shall we, and give him a friendly little shove in the right direction: Phone: 202-224-3542 Fax: 202-224-7327
“While Americans stood around their televisions late week following the ‘balloon boy’ saga, which proved fake, pranksters in Washington plotted a hoax of their own, this time targeting the nation’s business community.
“At an official-looking event staged at the National Press Club, an environmental activist calling himself “Hingo Sembra” pretended to be a representative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday. He announced the organization was pulling an about-face and supporting climate-change legislation before Congress.
“Eric Wohlschlegel, a spokesman for the real Chamber of Commerce, interrupted the press conference attended by both real and fake reporters, stormed the podium and demanded to see the activist’s business card, to which the man known as Mr. Sembra replied, ‘Can I see yours?’
“‘This guy is a fraud, he’s lying,’ Mr. Wohlschlegel told those assembled. ‘This is a stunt I’ve never seen before.’
“But by the time the Chamber reacted, it was too late. Reuters had already filed a story based on a fake press release. The news appeared on several websites and was announced on live television; an anchor for the Fox Business Network retracted the news within seconds of reporting it. Reuters quickly issued a correction.
“The prank was staged by the Yes Men, an activist group well-known for posing as corporate executives and related shenanigans. In 2004, Jacques Servin, the same man apparently posing as Mr. Sembra, tricked the BBC into thinking he worked for Dow Chemical. In an interview with the broadcaster, he said Dow would pay US$12-million to the victims of India’s Bhopal gas disaster. By the time that stunt was exposed a few hours later, the company’s stock had plunged by US$2-billion.
“The activists have also printed thousands of fake copies of the New York Times and New York Post, and once stormed the Calgary Gas and Oil Exposition with fake identities, touting the benefits of a fake energy source supposedly made of dead people.” ….
“Several weeks into office, as it pushed its wide-reaching stimulus package through Congress, the Obama administration found itself the beneficiary of an unlikely ally. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce declared that the $800 billion proposal was a necessary ‘defibrillator’ for a struggling economy and in doing so, gave the president a needed bit of political capital on his signature piece of legislation.
“The endorsement also produced a strange-bedfellows partnership between a White House whose remaining domestic priorities ruffled big business and the world’s largest lobbying entity for those same businesses. The detente seemed both unusual and limited. It was.
“Nine months after the Chamber helped the White House pass the stimulus and then the bank bailout, the relationship between the two has grown — as one business insider put it — ‘frosty.’ The Chamber has come out forcefully against several key planks of the Obama agenda and promised to throw hefty resources behind their opposition.
“The frustration is mutual. Inside the administration there is a growing distrust of the Chamber’s standing and motives. The defection of several major Chamber members over the group’s position on climate change legislation has, as one Obama adviser put it, ‘given us pause.’ As has their new $100 million ‘free enterprise’ campaign, which is being pitched as a way to create jobs but is aiming mainly to defeat regulatory reform. More than anything else, there is a widespread belief among White House officials that the Chamber is becoming a relic of the past — too tied to antiquated policy proposals and removed from the apex of political power it has historically enjoyed.
“‘I do think that the Chamber’s approach is somewhat old school,’ Valerie Jarrett, a senior Obama adviser and the president’s liaison to the business community, told the Huffington Post. ‘I think that the strategy of running a negative ad campaign instead of having constructive dialogue seems wasteful, wasteful of an opportunity and wasteful of money.’
“‘We were hoping to have a constructive dialogue with the Chamber,’ Jarrett added, ‘and it is regrettable that they decided to spend a huge amount of money launching this campaign.’
“Such words shouldn’t be taken lightly. Over its 90-year history, the Chamber has proven to be a scale-tipping player in many major legislative battles. Widely regarded as a entryway to the business community, it is the object of intense courtship or fear, depending on the administration.
“The Obama administration has been different. While the president gladly accepted the Chamber’s help on the stimulus and TARP, both he and his advisers have developed a business community outreach strategy that circumvents the organization. Since this summer, senior administration officials have held at least 11 meetings with CEOs and executives from more than 55 companies, according to data provided by the White House. The sessions usually involve half-a-dozen attendees representing companies in all different fields, from finance to pharmaceutical, soft drinks and real estate. Among the topics discussed: job creation, tax policy, climate change and health care reform.
“‘The intent there is simply to make sure we are getting accurate, timely feedback from the wide cross-section of the private sector and that we aren’t going to therefore rely solely on the Chamber or any other group,’ explained Jarrett. ‘[These CEOs] are like ambassadors to other businesses.’
“Instead of letting the Chamber serve as the gateway to business leaders, the administration is building its own bridges. It is a potentially huge structural shift for the nexus of politics and business.
“The Chamber, naturally, sees the administration’s gambit as more bluster than bite. In an interview with the Huffington Post, the group’s executive vice president of government affairs, Bruce Josten, argued that — far from forging its own alliances with major businesses — the Obama administration was really a wolf amid the sheep.” ….
“Here’s what the White House is up against as it tries to cut the legs out from underneath the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce: $34.7 million.
“That’s the jaw-dropping amount the Chamber shelled out to influence the federal government in the third quarter of 2009, according to a report filed with the Senate on Monday.
“The figure is greater than the sum of the next 18 highest filers so far, including the Chamber’s separate Institute for Legal Reform, which combined to spend $30.9 million. Many third-quarter reports will not be filed until tomorrow, when they are due.
“The big-dollar expenditure is a stark illustration of the high stakes battle between the White House and Republican-leaning business groups over proposed new regimes in the fields of finance, health care an energy.” …
COMMENT by Paul Evans: While the name “Chamber of Commerce” evokes Rockefeller Republicans in small towns all over the U.S., the group has been hijacked by the right wing and is essentially a lobbying and progoganda arm of the GOP. That’s too bad: This ain’t your father’s Chamber of Commerce any more.
