CAF In The News

online.wsj.com — President Barack Obama picked Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke to lead the U.S. through a major economic tumult, largely because of their experience tackling financial crises.

But what was once an asset is now a liability. All three men are under fire from the left and the right, their futures clouded by the very résumés that helped give them their power.

ipsnews.net — WASHINGTON, Jan 25, 2010 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama has delivered his plans for far-reaching banking and financial industry reforms, which mark a noticeable shift to the left in the administration's domestic policy and an acknowledgement of the public anger at Wall Street for its role in the financial crisis.

The White House's rollout of what is being billed by experts as the biggest overhaul of Wall Street since the Great Depression came in the same week that the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate with the loss of Edward Kennedy's Senate seat - a loss widely seen as a referendum on the Obama administration's first year in office.

seiu.org — The First Amendment was never intended to protect corporations...until now?

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the floodgates and started dismantling century-old restrictions on corporate electoral activity in the name of the 'free speech rights' of corporations. With less than 11 months before the fall elections, SCOTUS's Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission ruling overturns rules against direct and indirect corporate financial involvement in federal elections.

huffingtonpost.com — What a week. Call it the Shock Doctrine in reverse: The Massachusetts election and yesterday's Supreme Court ruling may force the Democrats to move to the left to ensure their political survival. They're now faced with a choice they clearly didn't want: forcefully reject the corporate agenda, or risk losing to opponents who can attract an unlimited flow of corporate dollars.

Many of us who supported the Democrats last year knew they'd disappoint us at times, but Barack Obama's mid-course corrections during the campaign showed that he had an innate teachability in the face of events that challenged his tactics or his beliefs. We need that teachability now, and it must extend to the rest of his party. Without it we may find ourselves in a nation where democracy is a commodity and real reform is an unreachable goal.

huffingtonpost.com — The Supreme Court yesterday allowed corporate executives to tap into their company's resources and use that money to directly influence elections instead of for the profitable operation of the company. This use of company funds isn't considered bribery because the company executives can claim they are only engaged is "speech" to promote good government, not influence public officials to bring a return to the company.

To fix this we should pass a law that tightens up corporate governance and explicitly spells out - as law - that for-profit companies can only use company resources for the profitable operation of the company. This would make it illegal to use company money to "promote good government" or any other excuse currently used to get around the bribery laws. If by law executives can't use the company's money except for activities that return a profit, then use of this money in politics can't be just "speech" -- it is to return a profit. Therefore the federal bribery of public officials statute would apply to any use of corporate resources to elect candidates:

huffingtonpost.com — What, you ask, do political writers really mean when they refer to "The Village"? What does that political term mean in practice, rather than in theory? Here's about as good an example as I have ever seen:

Jeffrey Birnbaum, one of the premier lobbying reporters, joined a leading K Street firm Tuesday.
Birnbaum has gone to BGR Group, formerly known as Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, as president of its public relations practice, BGR Public Relations.

huffingtonpost.com — In the 1998 midterms, Democrats actually gained seats. A rare thing for the president's party to pick up congressional seats in a second midterm election. Nevertheless, the Democrats won the day and Republicans lost a net five seats.

Take a guess how the Republicans responded. Naturally, they freaked out like infants and demanded that the party shift to the center, you know, where it's safe -- abandoning their congressional agenda in lieu of safe, small beans policy. Then they waited for all of the Democrats to be seated before they moved any votes to the floor. You know, just to be fair.

huffingtonpost.com — According to the Wall Street Journal, Senator Chris Dodd, Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, is thinking about abandoning the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) to gain bipartisan support for banking reform.

huffingtonpost.com — This year's commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. comes as the nation struggles with the issue of health reform. What would Dr. King have thought of the current proposal? While nobody would presume to speak for him, his writings and speeches leave us plenty of clues. How better to honor his memory than to apply his thinking to such an important issue?

blog.aflcio.org — Next week, the U.S. Senate will vote on legislation that a few years down the road could slash Social Security and Medicare benefits without any further debate or consideration by Congress.