| The Most Corrupt Congress in History |
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 Republicans claim that saying their party fosters "a culture of corruption" is an exaggeration and merely politics as usual, but closer examination reveals that this Congress may indeed be the most corrupt in history.
The change in Washington's culture began in 1995 with Newt Gingrich and his "Contract For America." With Tom DeLay's selection as majority whip, the GOP began the "K Street Project," which pressured trade associations and lobbying firms to hire only Republicans and to contribute to GOP campaigns if they wanted access to Congress. Since then, lobbying has grown rapidly: the number of federal lobbyists more than doubled since 2000 to 34,750. In 1996, lobbyists spent $800 million, but the Center for Public Integrity found that they have spent nearly $13 billion since 1998 to influence Congress. In February 2006, PoliticalMoneyLine revealed that lobbying groups broke all previous records, spending $1.165 billion in the first six months of 2005. That breaks down to almost $6.5 million a day or $540,000 per hour in a twelve-hour day, an 8 percent increase over the second half of 2004. Corruption permeates today's "free enterprise" system, producing the world's largest business scandals: Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia, Tyco, ImClone, Merrill Lynch, Qwest and Arthur Andersen. In February, 2006, American International Group, one of the world's largest insurance companies, was fined $1.64 billion for fraud, bid-rigging and improper accounting. The same week Nortel Networks was fined $2.4 billion for an accounting scandal. News of insider deals, kickbacks, illegal fees and other corrupt business practices fill the financial pages. Business corruption also permeates the top levels of government. President Bush used insider information to sell his oil company stock before it plummeted; Dick Cheney was gifted millions in Halliburton retirement benefits he wasn't entitled to; and Senate Majority Bill Frist (Rep.-Tenn.) abruptly sold millions of dollars in stock in his family's hospital business just before an unfavorable public announcement. Former House Majority leader Tom DeLay is under indictment in Texas for illegal fundraising and GOP leaders rewarded him with a seat on the Appropriations Committee as well as on a subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department after jettisoning him as their leader. DeLay, who owns an exterminator company in Texas, was fined three times by the IRS for failing to pay payroll and income taxes and paid court settlements three times for cheating business partners. The Republican Party is the party of business so it's no wonder that such corruption characterizes the party. Small businesses are also corrupt. The Commerce Dept. released a report in February 2006 revealing that Americans failed to report income of over a trillion dollars on their 2003 tax returns, a 37 percent increase since 2000. Unreported income and improper deductions shortchanged taxes some $345 billion in 2001. Small businesses, investors and farmers cheated the most - 50 times more than wage earners - although the department didn't investigate corporate tax cheating. Lobbying is popular because it pays off. One lobbying firm, the Carmen Group, even publicizes the benefits and costs of its clients' fees. In 2004, they collected $11 million in fees and delivered $1.2 billion in assistance to their clients. Several years ago, 60 corporations, including Pfizer, Hewlett-Packard and Altria, decided to spend $1.6 million to lobby Congress to avoid taxes by creating a special low tax rate on foreign profits. Stymied at first, the corporations were finally successful when Bush signed a bill in 2004 to reduce taxes on foreign profits from 35 percent to 5 percent. Last year these companies returned $300 billion in foreign earnings to the US, providing the corporations with more than $100 billion in tax savings. By "influencing" Congress with gifts, trips, campaign funding, jobs for relatives and other inducements, lobbyists induce legislators to slip pet projects - called "earmarks" - into the federal budget to benefit clients. In 1998, when the GOP took control of Congress, there were 4,219 earmarks a year. Under GOP control, earmarks quadrupled to 15,877 last year, worth $27 billion. Earmarks escape oversight and scrutiny by being inserted into the budget behind closed doors and omitted from the text of the legislation. According to Congressional rules, this is perfectly legal; everyone does it. Taxpayers expect little from Congressional ethics committees. In 2005, faced with GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay's indictment for illegal campaign fund raising, the GOP weakened ethics rules in place since 1968. Public Citizen, a Congressional watchdog group found that "Neither ethics committee (House or Senate) has much of a track record for ethics enforcement." How long will the corruption last and how deep will it go? The GOP is in firm control of the Supreme Court, the White House, the House and the Senate, and voting districts have been gerrymandered so few seats are expected to change hands in elections. Without a major change in voting behavior, the Republican Party is likely to remain in charge and government corruption will continue to set new records. Don Monkerud ~ STWR Member Don Monkerud is an Aptos, California-based writer who follows cultural, social and political issues.
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