A proposed program to cover counseling sessions for seniors on end-of-life care has risen from the ashes of health care reform and found a new life in Medicare regulations, Jason Hancock of the American Independent reports.
In August, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin started a rumor via her Facebook page that the the Obama administration was backing "death panels" that would vote on whether the elderly and infirm had a right to live. In reality, the goal was to have Medicare reimburse doctors for teaching patients how to set up their own advance directives that reflect their wishes on end-of-life care.
Patients can use their advance directives to stipulate their wishes for treatment in the event that they are too sick to make decisions for themselves. They can also use those directives to demand the most aggressive lifesaving interventions.
Waste not, want not
Though end-of-life counseling was ultimately gutted from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the legislation will eventually ensure health coverage for 32 million more Americans. However, Joanne Kenen in The American Prospect argues it will do comparatively less to curb the high costs of health care. The architects of the ACA had an opportunity to include serious cost-containment measures like a robust public health insurance option to compete with private insurers, but they declined to do so.
Kenen argues that the government should more aggressively target waste within the health care delivery system, especially Medicare and Medicaid. Unchecked and rising health care costs through Medicare and Medicaid are a significantly greater driver of the deficit than Social Security or discretionary spending:
"The waste is enormous," says Harvard health care economist David Cutler. "You can easily convince yourself that there is 40 to 50 percent to be saved." Squeezing out every single bit of that inefficient or unnecessary care may not be realistic. But it also isn't necessary; eliminating even a small fraction of the current waste each year over the next decade would make a huge difference, he added. Health care would finally start acting like "a normal industry." Productivity would grow, in the one area of the economy where it has not, and with productivity gains, prices could be expected to fall.
The new end-of-life counseling program will help reduce waste in the system, not by pressuring people to forgo treatments they want, but by giving them the tools to refuse treatments they don't want.
Teen births down, but why?
The teen birth rate has dropped again, according to the latest CDC statistics. Births to women under the age of 20 declined by 6% in 2009 compared to 2008. One hypothesis is that the reduction is an unexpected consequence of the recession, an argument we pointed to in last week's edition of the Pulse. John Tomasic of the Colorado Independent is skeptical of the recession hypothesis. He writes:
Emily Bridges, director of public information services at Advocates for Youth, agrees with other observers in pointing out that teens aren't likely to include national economics as a significant factor in pondering whether or not to have unprotected sex. Peer pressure, badly mixed booze, general awkwardness, for example, are much more likely than the jobless recovery to play on the minds of horny high schoolers.
Some states with weak economies actually saw a rise in teen birth rates, Tomasic notes. However, this year's sharp downturn in teen births parallels a drop in fertility for U.S. women of all ages, which seems best explained by economic uncertainty.
It's true that prospective teen moms are less likely to have jobs in the first place, and so a bad job market might be less likely to sway their decisions. However, young women who aren't working are unlikely to have significant resources of their own to draw on, which means that they are heavily dependent upon others for support. If their families and partners are already struggling to make ends meet, then the prospect of another mouth to feed may seem even less appealing than usual.
Abortion is the elephant in the room in this discussion. The CDC numbers only count live births. Logically, fewer live births must be the result of fewer conceptions and/or more terminations. Some skeptics doubt that economic factors have much to do with teens' decisions about contraception. However, it seems plausible that decisions about abortion would be heavily influenced by the economic health of the whole extended family.
Last year's decrease was notably sharp, but teen birth rates have been declining steadily for the last 20 years. The Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based non-profit that specializes in research on reproductive choice and health, suggests that successive generations of teens are simply getting savvier about contraception. Births to mothers between the ages of 15 and 17 are down 48% from 1991 levels, and births to mothers ages 18 to 19 are down 30%.
Stupid drug dealer tricks
Martha Rosenberg of AlterNet describes 15 classic dirty tricks deployed by Big Pharma to push drugs. These include phony grassroots patient groups organized by the drug companies to lobby for approval of dubious remedies. Another favorite money-making strategy is to overcharge Medicare and Medicaid. Pharmaceutical companies have paid nearly $15 billion in wrongdoing settlements related to Medicare and Medicaid chicanery over the last five years.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about health care by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Pulse for a complete list of articles on health care reform, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.
It's the return of CRUSH! After taking a short summer hiatus, we're back in action, crushing the week's social media news into a juicy 3 minutes or less. And this week we're even giving you a special behind-the-scenes look into Crush Studios, so don't forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter.
The newest and third-largest nation in the world - Facebook Nation - is having trouble getting its currency off the ground. Facebook's announcement that Facebook credits will soon be the sole currency for all apps and games, has some of its 500,000 million citizens (i.e. developers) putting up a fight.
But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg better start focusing on national security because other forces are preparing to attack. A web designer has filed a lawsuit against the social networking site claiming that, based on a contract entered in 2003 with Zuckerberg, he is entitled to 84% of Facebook, or $12.6 billion. And a Judge in New York has ruled to freeze the social networking site's assets until the case is resolved.
So Mr. Zuckerberg, how would you like to pay for that? Cash, credit, check or...Facebook credits?
In this week's quick hits:
Ebay has it's own legal woes, facing a copyright infringement lawsuit over PayPal technology that could cost them almost $4 billion.
Tweet Deck surpassed 15 million downloads this week, meaning that apparently more than 15 million people have yet to hear of Hootsuite.
And just when you thought Chatroulette couldn't get any creepier...it has now added a local feature, so you can now tell just how close that person (or body part) really is.
And in world news, China's online population has skyrocketed to "420 million as more people access the Internet with cell phones." The Communist government has renewed Google's operating license, ending the months-long stalemate over Internet censorship and providing momentum for rights groups, such as Human Rights First, in their effort to create an open Internet behind the Great Chinese Firewall.
And that brings us to our "Crush of the Week" where we would like to recognize the brilliant folks over at Old Spice for their new, creative social media marketing campaign that is both entertaining and effective.
Sometimes I think America is the proverbial child-star-gone-bad of nations: we have a crippling addiction, but we still won't go to rehab.
We are hooked on burning dirty fossil fuels like cavemen, and no matter how many times we hit rock bottom -- deadly coal mining accidents, the uncontrolled oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and American soldiers risking their lives overseas -- we won't embrace the safer, smarter, cleaner path of renewable energy.
Change shouldn't be this hard.
That is the message behind a new ad campaign launched by NRDC's Action Fund this week. The ad urges senators from both sides of the aisle to put America back in control of our energy future.
Americans want change: a recent poll found that seven in ten Americans think clean energy legislation must be fast-tracked in the wake of the catastrophic Gulf oil spill.
Yet our elected officials haven't delivered the clean energy that voters want. Too many lawmakers fear that if they vote for a clean energy future, they will fall prey to populist mood swings come November. But they are mistaken and here is why:
1. Support for clean energy and climate action is not a flash in the pan. President Obama made clean energy one of the three planks of his platform. His energy policies have been vetted, reviewed and fleshed out through the longest presidential campaign in history and into his administration.
And all the while, clean energy has remained popular with American voters. So much so that Tea Party candidates now talk about it themselves. Most of their claims are bogus, but it is revealing that they haven't left clean energy on the cutting room floor.
2. Tea Party candidates are like the streaker at a football game. They get a lot of attention for their bold, rebellious positions, but after you get a closer look, you want to turn your head away. Their catchphrases simply don't hold up to scrutiny, never mind a 24-hour news cycle.
Rand Paul sounded good in his 30-second campaign spots, for instance, but just days after he won the primary, he started saying business owners should be allowed to kick people of color out of their establishments. After seeing Paul on The Rachel Maddow Show or Sarah Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric, viewers start to realize that Tea Party slogans don't always make for sound governing policy.
3. The Tea Party is today's rebranding of conservative Republican voters. It baffles me that people talk about the Tea Party as if it were something new, when in fact it is just the latest packaging of the radical right. We have seen this before and we know how it ends: people who identify with the radical group of the day are people who already vote and who will continue to vote for the most conservative candidate. This is not a new batch of voters up for grabs, and therefore, there is no point in pandering to them.
4. Angry voters may scream the loudest, but that doesn't make them powerful. It is human nature to pay attention to the loudest person in the room, but that doesn't mean you have to like them. The official Tea Party page on Facebook has only 200,000 fans. The "Can this poodle wearing a tinfoil hat get more fans than Glenn Beck" Facebook page has 280,453 fans.
Right now, every politico is trying to figure out how to win in November, and some are getting distracted by the noise of the radical right. The truth is that these people have been angry for a long time and they will be angry long after lawmakers leave Congress. It is how they live their lives. And while they have extra visibility right now, it looks like most elections will be decided on issues particular to each state, not Tea Party anger.
5. People will vote for lawmakers who create jobs, growth and security. In the end, winning elections and governing the nation is about making people's lives better. Passing clean energy and climate legislation will do that. It could generate nearly 2 million jobs, put America at the forefront of the global clean energy marketplace, strengthen national security and reduce dangerous pollution.
Now is not the time to be bullied. It is the time for lawmakers to stand up and put America on a path to a cleaner, better future. This kind of change isn't hard at all.
CRUSH Roadtrip 2010 has been officially underway and this week we break down Facebook like you've never seen it before - giving you not only the latest from the news desk, but also what people on the street have to say.
While a handful of Senators spoke out against Facebook's new automatic opt-in privacy policy, this week the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a formal Federal Trade Commission complaint against the social media network - requesting that the FTC "investigate Facebook, enjoin its unfair and deceptive business practices, and require Facebook to protect the privacy of Facebook users."
However, Facebook was preoccupied attending to a more pressing privacy issue. The chat feature suffered a major technology glitch, causing some users private chats and friend requests to be exposed to the entirety of their friends list.
Which brings us to our prediction that Facebook will be upgrading this chat feature in the coming months. Especially since Russian investor DST, who bought the instant messaging relic ICQ from AOL, has increased its stake in Facebook from 2% to 10%. Giving DST more power in the decision making process and the chance to put its newest purchase into something useful.
Sadly, the future doesn't look bright for all of social media. Digg is the most recent social media company to announce layoffs, sending an email to employees informing them that 10% of the workforce would be let go. And this comes on the heels of Ning announcing it would be cutting its workforce by 40% and removing all free services.
And what do the people have to say about all of this? Well, we take a stop at Denver, Colorado and get some interesting opinions from three individuals who actually don't have a Facebook account, a very rare breed in this day and age.
We almost had the chance to ask Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, what his thoughts were on the subject when we spotted him in the car next to us...unfortunately he drove away too soon.
But the best part of our Roadtrip so far has got to be this week's CRUSH of the Week, where we got to meet up with the creator of Captain Planet. This was only stop one, so be sure to stay tuned for more in the upcoming weeks and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to find out if we're coming to a city near you!
Pride at Work's latest stunt infiltrating the Westin St. Francis is now a YouTube sensation, generating over 35,000 hits yesterday. It was featured on two local evening news shows, the progressive webzine Common Dreams, and the LGBT blog Towleroad - and on countless Facebook pages. But besides being a fun video, it deftly shows how activists can adapt to new ways of getting their message out. Mass rallies are much less effective today than they were in the Sixties, but too often progressives want to re-live this era by using the same tools and expecting a different result. People don't get their news from just a few channels anymore, so it's possible to have a march with thousands of people with little effect. Today, ideas catch fire and take hold through online social networks. "Caught in a Bad Hotel" was not the first YouTube flashmob, but it was the first one with a political purpose. And hopefully, it won't be the last.
CRUSH - Bringing you the latest in social media news in four minutes or less. And in our own exciting news - we've gone HD, making our crushing capabilities that much clearer. Enjoy! Don't forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter, and get your daily crush at www.commonsensenms.com
Facebook took center stage this week with its annual developers conference, F8. What were the biggest announcements? Although Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg displayed a dozen new tools and widgets, the most significant announcement to prepare for is the "open graph platform". Open Graph plans to connect all corners in the web in order to "create a Web that's smarter, more social, more personalized, and more semantically aware". As one element of this platform, website owners will have a chance to place a "Like" button on their pages, allowing Facebook to then publish whatever a user likes directly to their Facebook profile.
Of course the privacy police have already stated concern over the new development, and with good reason. When does sharing data on what we read, view, listen to, and interact with on the web become invasive as opposed to interactive? Stay tuned to CRUSH for latest in what is sure to be an upcoming battle over personalization versus privacy.
In honor of the recent celebration of Earth Day, we encourage you to fly on over to the "We Love Birds" community on Ning. Hosted by NRDC and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, "We Love Birds" is one of the best uses of Ning we've seen yet. View some of natures' finest yourself with the over 7,000 stunning photos.
While social media sites continue to innovate at a crushing speed, the honorable justices of the US Supreme Court seem to be experiencing technical difficulties. The divide between "the hip justices and hip-replacement judges" was made painfully clear during this week's court discussion over sexting and privacy rights. Embarrassing highlights from the case:
Chief Justice Roberts asks what the difference was between email and a pager
Justice Kennedy wondered what would happen if you were sent a text the same time you were sending one to someone else - "Does it say: 'Your call is important to us, and we will get back to you?"
Justice Scalia's confusion on service providers and concern of whether they can be shared by printing them - "You mean (the text) doesn't go right to me?"..."Could Quon print these spicy little conversations and send them to his buddies?"
In other online sex news, we would like to commend Apple's decision to trash nearly 6,000 sexually suggestive iPhone apps. Refreshing to see some leadership within corporate America, and hats off to Steve Jobs for refusing to chose profits over the objectification of women.
And that brings us to our CRUSH OF THE WEEK - Our story this week truly reveals the power of social media, as Mayor of East Haven Connecticut donated a kidney to a Facebook Friend, Carlos Sanchez, after seeing the status update Sanchez posted saying his friends and relatives had all been tested but were not a match. Making the Mayor a hero in our books, and Facebook her loyal sidekick.
This week saw some very cool new media news including Chirp, "How to run a government from your iPad", why Steve Jobs caused the Iceland volcano, the new budget deficit video game (MA), Glee: the app, and of course Stella Artios - The Movie (starring you).
All this and more. Watch the video:
Twitter held its first developers conference, appropriately called "Chirp", this past week and revealed the following key announcements: it has surpassed 100,000,000 users (with more than 300 thousands users signing up a day), the site boasts more than 180 million unique visitors a month, and that twitter will be releasing every tweet to be archived in the Library of Congress. Up next in the spring conference circuit is Facebook, which is preparing to display its latest news at F8 this Wednesday.
In international news, various social media tools covered the latest British debate between the leaders of the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative parties, providing instant snapshots of the country's reactions into the debate. More than 184,000 tweets were sent during the debate and Facebook saw even more action - with over 45,000 people joining the Democracy UK page, which featured a "Rate the Debate" app. However, Facebook crushed under the pressure as the swarm of traffic caused the app to fail during the event.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was among the thousands of unlucky individuals whose travel plans were delayed due to the volcano that erupted in Iceland and created an ash cloud that caused the closure of European airspace. However, Stoltenberg is also one of the 450,000 people who own an iPad, which is how he has been running the Norwegian government from the United States.
Congressional deficit Commission Co-Chair Erskine Bowles is hoping that technology will be the key to balancing out our national debt. Bowles has asked Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to develop a game that will solve the national debt crisis, signaling both a new way to gain the interest of public, and opening up the possibility of fresh ideas by "crowdsourcing".
In other game news, if you are a Foursquare geek you will enjoy this new web series "Foursquare cops", brought to you by HubSpot and featuring the new police force the game has sent out to patrol the streets for cheaters.
Speaking of geeks, Glee fans are singing praises for the new "Glee" app, recently released and available for the iPhone, iTouch and iPad. The special "sonic network" adds a slew of interactive elements, making it more than just a music app. Users are able to not only sing and record their favorite show songs, but also share recordings, join people in their performances, and start Glee clubs.
And that brings us to our Crush of the Week, featuring another company who hit a high note with their innovative use of social media, the Belgian beer maker Stella Artois. But we don't want to ruin all the fun by just telling you how they did it, so check out their recent promotion to see it first hand.
CRUSH is a fast and fun weekly round-up of social media news - Join us on Facebook to keep up with all the latest.
What was this week's theme among your favorite social networking sites? Change. Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are all rolling out a handful of new features. Including Twitter's addition of "most popular tweets" to its search capability, a new interactive layout for YouTube, and the introduction of language alterations and community pages from Facebook.
Facebook was especially busy, as it also acquired "Divvyshot", a program that will allow users to tag photos by event. You can expect to see this application in the upcoming months. Music artist John Forte has already gotten a head start on how this might work, pausing mid-set during his latest tour stop in Boston to snap a photo for his morning Twitter feed.
More politicians are beginning to find audiences via social media. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is reaching out to his constituents on Facebook. He follows New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, who did a live stream chat courtesy of the Live Free of Die Alliance a few months ago.
But beware, the power of social media is a double-edged sword. Just ask the RNC, as the release of controversial financial records and activities have been blasted to the public by an army of bloggers, as well as a video mashup of RNC Chairman Michael Steele's speeches to Fat Joe's music video "Make It Rain".
On a lighter note, April Fool's Day did not go by unnoticed. Here's a list of Mashable's favorite pranks from this year.
And of course, we couldn't resist pulling a prank of our own, which brings us to our CRUSH of the Week. Haven't heard of a Rick Roll? Let us introduce you...
A quick digest of the week's social media news with a side of fun? You're welcome. Introducing CRUSH, the weekly web-show that takes the news on the social media newsladder and crushes it down to reveal the gems.
In this weeks' edition, we discuss the coincidence of Google releasing Buzz at about the same time they struck a deal with the NSA to share info. No relationship - just like Glenn Beck getting a show on Fox the day before Obama was inaugurated.
Facebook, meanwhile made changes to its privacy settings allowing users more control of what info is shared. That won't help people who choose to share their info though. With the growth of location sharing, there is a new website that points out a nagging issue with letting people know where you are all the time.
On the political side of thigs, this past week marked the one year anniversary of the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Organizing for America released this video to mark the occasion, and the House Committee on Education and Labor realeased a great video as well. This is not the first time the Ed and Labor committee has turned to creative webvideos to spread a message, and we hope it will not be the last.
Sarah Palin was asked what she thought the biggest threat to America is, and when her supporters shouted 'Obama' she felt the need to clarify that they had said it, not she. She didn't correct them though. If Mrs. Palin cared about 'those little facty things' she and her supporters might want to thumb through the Quadrennial Defense Review, which catalougues the various security threats to the nation as determined by, well, the people who spend their careers assessing threats to our nation.
Finally, this is from Ben Whitehair on Facebook, and it is hilarious:
5 steps to an AWESOME day: Step 1: Go to google maps... www.google.com/maps Step 2: Search for 39 Rugdeveien, Bergen, Hordaland, Norge Step 3: Zoom in until you get to street view Step 4: Look to the left of the truck and see two men in scooba gear Step 5: Click to make the truck go down the road and watch the men chase the truck....
This past summer, The Opportunity Agenda conducted a scan (PDF) to determine the state of immigration advocacy on the social web, looking specifically at the following: blogs that frequently cover politics and reach a mass audience, Twitter, YouTube, and the two largest social networking sites (Facebook and MySpace). This research built on a similar scan we conducted in 2007.
Turning specifically to social networking sites, we found a landscape transformed. In 2007 anti-immigrant groups dominated social networking sites approximately two to one. Today the majority of groups on Facebook with a focus on immigration support commonsense reform. MySpace, meanwhile, seems to no longer serve as an active tool for advocacy.
While the main point of our scan was to provide a snapshot of online immigration advocacy in the summer of 2009, our research did lead to a number of recommendations.
First, we wish to point out the success of DREAM Act-related groups on Facebook. Of all the immigration groups on the site, these were the most popular in terms of membership. We speculate that an important reason for this was the ability of these groups to consistently update their content and have active members routinely post information and news related to the DREAM Act. This is key. Members often need to see the vibrancy of a group before they will participate. Once they do, these members' networks see this activity and learn of the group. It is this cycle, we believe, that led to much of the success seen by these groups.
Our crude measure for participation in these groups, membership, is not uncommon. As seen by the proliferation of Facebook groups looking for "1,000,000 for..." any number of causes, it would help the movement to combine its numbers to show unity and support for practical immigration re- form. The best example, again, is the dream Act with its 33 different groups advocating for the same piece of legislation. Despite the difficulties in doing so, it would be beneficial to work toward fewer groups and higher membership rolls.
Again read the full report online for more. Meanwhile, any more tips? Let us hear them in the comments below.
Ah, yes, two great topics for the Thanksgiving dinner table (no, I will not be watching the Dallas or Detroit games today, but may catch some of the Giants/Broncos). This year, I noticed they started intermingling in even cooler ways.
As many of you may know, I'm a die-hard Bills fan, and there has been a movement underway since he was re-hired in December to can our moron of a former head coach, Dick Jauron. In October, a northern PA Bills fan launched a campaign to buy billboard advertising in the Buffalo area asking our owner, Ralph Wilson, to fire Jauron. He raised several thousand dollars over his website and a Facebook group, bought the billboard, and got it covered by ESPN, Sports Illustrated, the Sporting News, CBS Sports, FOX Sports, and other outlets.
Another fan created the now-famous FireDick t-shirts and pushed their sales over Facebook and Twitter. They even have several variations now:
If you haven't heard the wonderful news, last week Jauron was finally fired, I think in no small part because of efforts like these.
Earlier this week, I read that six college football fans had actually created a federal PAC to get the NCAA to change its flawed system from the BCS to a playoff system.
Playoff PAC is a federal political committee dedicated to establishing a competitive post-season championship for college football. The Bowl Championship Series is inherently flawed. It crowns champions arbitrarily and stifles inter-conference competition. Fans, players, schools, and corporate sponsors will be better served when the BCS is replaced with an accessible playoff system that recognizes and rewards on-the-field accomplishment. To that end, Playoff PAC helps elect pro-reform political candidates, mobilizes public support, and provides a centralized source of pro-reform news, thought, and scholarship.
The bad side of that is that one of them is the former Republican campaign finance counsel to McCain's campaign, and the other bad side is that they just hired Ari Fleischer to consult- so I would be cautious about giving- but I think it's cool nonetheless. I wonder what their theory of change even is to accomplish that at the congressional level, but I look forward to observing them.
Anyway, if you've got some sports fans in your family, and tonight Uncle Harry mocks your DFH blog-reading, or Grandma asks why you waste your time with your Facepage or Tweeter or whatever, ask them what they've done lately to change the sports world!
The last big news from Facebook was that, were it considered a country, its population would be larger than that of all the countries in the world, save China, India, the United States, and Indonesia. (It stands at 200 million.)
Diving into those demographics a bit, we recently learned that what was once, by design, the exclusive domain of college students, now counts its largest age group as those 35 to 54. Remarkably, the second largest age group are those 24 to 34-year olds (25.2%).
Those of approximately college age, 18-24, come in today at 25.1%—remarkably down from 40.8% from just this past January.
This just underscores important role Facebook can play in advocacy. It reaches an astounding number of people, but looking specifically at fundraising, it's reaching those people most likely to have the means to give and not simply those in college already struggling to stretch their limited income.
As further evidence of this, the popular Facebook fundraising application, Causes, recently announced that they've raised $10 million in a little over two years. Interestingly, they've raised half of that, a full $5 million, in the past six months alone. Though it'd be very hard to report causality, this certainly corresponds to older users overtaking young college and grad school aged users as the primary users of Facebook.
Although we need to remember that Facebook doesn't reach everyone, it's increasingly becoming a more and more useful tool.
Last last week, the one millionth site was created on the social network Ning. For individuals and organizations (including nonprofits) for whom Facebook is not giving them exactly what they need, there's Ning, which allows users to build their own social network.
For an example of how nonprofits are using Ning, take a look at the site of our friends at National CAPACD, the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development.
Ning is free, with ads. The premium version gets rid of that.
To read more from The Opportunity Agenda, visit our blog.
Stephen Colbert nailed the connection between special-interest campaign contributions and results in Congress (in a way only he could).
In the process, he also nailed Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who Colbert accuses of selling out to the Payday Loan industry for a mere $10,000. Gutierrez dramatically watered down his "Payday Loan Reform Act" in a way that will make the Payday industry billions -- at the expense of the little guy.
It was a smart investment for the Payday industry. But it's horrible for our democracy.
Colbert's segment basically made the case for why Congress needs to pass the bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act, which would put in place public funding of congressional elections (while still allowing Obama-style small donations, matching them four to one).
Check out the Colbert video for yourself on the Change Congress website by clicking here. On that page, you can also take action to get Congress to pass this crucial reform bill.
(If you want to help spread the reform message to others, share this post over email, Facebook, or Twitter. #gutierrez #politics #money. Disclosure: I work for Big Reform group Change Congress.)
The Chamber took to their blog and ambiguously wrote, "No. No we are not."
It's well documented by Sam Stein at The Huffington Post that bailout recipients have been asked to funnel money to groups that are running anti-worker ads like the ones announced yesterday by the Chamber.
So I wrote, "Let me pose a more specific question: Is the Chamber actively rejecting money from bailout recipients?"
Another one quickly answered, the U.S. Chamber continues to accept as members companies which receive both public and private funds. In addition we do not believe that the receipt of taxpayer money abrogates an individual or groups’ rights under the First Amendment.
My original answer to the original question still stands, beyond question.
Actually, it's not beyond question -- and Jonathan Martin at Politico agrees:
Adam Green over at OpenLeft pushes the Chamber of Commerce to say that they're still accepting dues from bailed-out companies.
The goal is to make the case that the Chamber is using taxpayer dollars to help fund their anti-EFCA campaign (of which they have launched new ads targeting moderate Democratic senators).
The Chamber's Brad Peck says they're not using bail-out money for the campaign.
I've asked how exactly they know that to be the case.
A bunch of folks have joined the Facebook group asking the same question, and have used the contact info posted in that group to email Chamber execs directly.
The Chamber of Commerce’s solution for fixing our economic crisis is to use funds from taxpayer bailed-out companies to fight smart economic policies that will restore balance to our economy and help rebuild the American Middle Class.
...American taxpayers have had enough. The Chamber of Commerce must stop accepting taxpayer funds to lobby against taxpayer interests.
It's a pretty cut-and-dry case.
Taxpayer money went to companies so they could rebuild their fundamentals. By the Chamber's now-admission, bailout recipients are giving some of that money to the Chamber (aka, not using it to rebuild their fundamentals). Then, the Chamber uses that taxpayer money to fund ads against workers in political swing states.
We'll now see if the Chamber is as oblivious to the PR disaster that is about to hit them as the Wall Street execs who used bailout money to redecorate their offices and pay bonuses were.
Maybe smarter heads at the Chamber will prevail, and they'll take this issue off the table by publicly rejecting money from bailout recipients. We'll see...
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