ALEC - Very Important Threat To US Liberties Exposed!

[Peter Lemkin]

Below from yesterday's DemocracyNow! Here is the best website on ALEC This is IMPORTANT - and little known! ALEC is behind MUCH of the RIGHT wing legislative agenda in the USA!

JUAN GONZALEZ: The Internal Revenue Service has been asked to investigate the nonprofit tax status of a Washington-based organization that its critics say has played a key role in helping corporations secretly draft model pro-business legislation that has been used by state lawmakers across the country. The American Legislative Exchange Council was formed nearly four decades ago and has become, in its own words, "the nation's largest, non-partisan, individual public-private membership association of state legislators."

But the organization, often known simply as ALEC, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months for its role in drafting bills to attack workers' rights, roll back environmental regulations, privatize education, deregulate major industries, and pass voter ID laws. Thanks to ALEC, at least a dozen states have recently adopted a nearly identical resolution asking Congress to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to stop regulating carbon emissions.

AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this week, the Center for Media and Democracy released 800 model bills approved by companies and lawmakers at recent ALEC meetings. Unlike many other organizations, ALEC's membership includes both state lawmakers and corporate executives. At its meetings, the corporations and politicians gather behind closed doors to discuss and vote on model legislation. Before the bills are publicly introduced in state legislatures, they're cleansed of any reference to who actually wrote them.

According to the Center, beneficiaries of recent model bills by ALEC include the tobacco firm Altria/Philip Morris; the health insurance firm Humana; the pharmaceutical company Bayer; and the private prison company Corrections Corporation of America, CCA.

For more, we go to Madison, Wisconsin, to speak with Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy. We invited a member from ALEC on to join us, but they did not return our phone calls or emails.

Lisa, talk about your findings.

LISA GRAVES: Well, this week, the Center for Media and Democracy made available to the public a wide array of bills from the secretive ALEC, from the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council. And what these model bills, these wish lists for corporations, show is that corporations and politicians, state politicians, voted behind closed doors through ALEC task forces on a set of radical proposals to rewrite our rights in almost every area of the law. And so, this trove of documents that came to us by way of a whistleblower, we felt it was very important for the American people to see these bills, to be able to analyze these bills, to see what was happening in their own legislatures, and to trace these bills back to ALEC and to the corporations that actually voted for them behind closed doors. We were astonished, in these documents, that ALEC touts to its members that corporations have a, quote, "voice and a vote." They have a voice and a vote, through ALEC task forces, on our lives, on bills beforein many instances, they are introduced in any legislature across the country.

These bills have published, these resolutions, against things like windfall taxeswindfall taxes for the oil companies, resolutions on all sorts of things involving the budget, to try to stop any revenue increases to help address spending crisesor, pardon me, to help address the crises that we're seeing in terms of the budgets, so that we can deal with the needs of our country. And so, what you see in bill after bill, resolution after resolution, is this radical agenda that has been put forth since the 1970s, funded by some of the wealthiest, wealthiest people and corporations in the world. Corporations like Koch Industries, billionaires Charles and David Koch, who run that company, many other companies, Exxon, the wealthiest of the wealthiest on the planet, have been part ALEC and part of this agenda.

And so, we made these bills, with analysis, available to the public, so the American people can see where bills that are racing through their state legislatures this springto radically write worker rights, consumer rights, the rights of Americans killed or injured by corporations, tax law, budget laws, the rights of local democracy, efforts to stop reforming healthcarewhere these things are, in many respects, coming from. They're coming in prepackaged bills to legislators across the country through ALEC.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Lisa, you've written about, in particular, a meeting that occurred in April of this year in Cincinnati, I guess a plenary of the members of ALEC. And also, you've written extensively aboutspecifically, what is the role of the Koch brothers in this organization?

LISA GRAVES: Well, this spring, ALEC had its annual meeting of its task forces. These are task forces on tort law, on environmental law, on tax law, health law, in which corporations and politicians vote. ALEC says they vote separately. I'm not sure that makes a whole lot of difference. The fact is, is that these bills have, in essence, been pre-approved by some of the biggest global corporations in the world, and then, in essence, they are ratified by the politicians who lead ALEC, and then they are put out throughout the country.

So, this is an organization that has been around since that radical ideology that Jeff talked about that really started to take root in the early 1970s. It's been fundedthis movement, this network, this infrastructure of think tanks and organizations, has been funded by individuals like Charles and David Koch. Their roots are some pretty extreme roots, I would say. The fact is that their father was on the national council of the John Birch Society. Their father was an outspoken speaker and pamphleteer as the leader of what became Koch Industries. And in his writings and speeches, he suggested and claimed that the NEA was basically filled with communists, that our public school system and textbooks were filled with communist rhetoric, that President Eisenhower was soft on communism, that the Supreme Court was pro-communist.

And some men might rebel. Others might spend their life spending their wealth and their will to basically repackage these ideas and market them through these think tanks and through groups like ALEC to make an effort to privatize public education, to privatize public institutions, to stop taxes, progressive taxation on the wealthiest Americans, on the wealthiest companies. This is what this agenda has done.

And as a consequence of their unity of vision with ALEC, ALEC rewarded the Koch brothers, both of them, by naming them their Adam Smith Award winner in the early '90s. And since that time, Koch Industries has had a seat on ALEC's corporate board, and Koch Industries' lobbyists have been involved in ALEC's activities, which include these bills that cover a range of topics. They're not just topics that would necessarily benefit Koch Industries, one of the richest privately held companies on the planet. They are part of an ideology that radically seeks to change America, to undo the gains of the 20th century

JUAN GONZALEZ: And

LISA GRAVES: and to return us to the daysyeah?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Yeah, and Lisa, one of the other areas that the Koch brothers and ALEC have been heavily involved in are free trade initiatives. Could you talk about that, as well?

LISA GRAVES: Sure. So, ALEC has a number of resolutions, through one of its task forces, that embrace nearly every free trade agreement that has been proposed. We traced back to see some of the origins of these provisions, in terms of the think tank world, and we found that David Koch had founded an organization called Citizens for a Sound Economy. It's since split off and, in essence, become FreedomWorks, which is one of the arms of the Tea Party, run, you know, separately. And David Koch has been instrumental in a new group that many Americans have heard about called Americans for Prosperity, which is also, in essence, arming the Tea Party with misinformation, with disinformation.

And so, this group, this Citizens for a Sound Economy, started pushing really hard for free trade agreements in the 1990s. And that was an era of, you know, tremendous, what was called "protectionism" for American industriesAmerica's steel industry, the steelworkers, our timber, a whole set of industries that were the backbone of the American economy, the backbone of the American middle class, the backbone of fueling the American Dream. And so, Citizens for a Sound Economy was pushing for free trade. These groups aligned with it, corporations aligned with it, were pushing for free trade. Those sorts of resolutions becamethose sorts of ideas became resolutions within ALEC, within a network of the right-wing think tanks. And they have been pushed forward.

We also found that Citizens for a Sound Economy used the sort of stock shock in the late 1980s, in 1987, as a basis for calling for repeal of Glass-Steagall, which are the protections that were passed just after the Great Depression to protect against banks gambling in the stock market. And so, an early callthe early call to repeal Glass-Steagall came from David Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy.

And, of course, what you see in provisions that are throughout the trove of documents from the secretive ALEC, that are on our site, alecexposed.org, what you see in those documents, in the tax and budget area and the trade area, is this extreme corporate agenda to basically be able to outsource American jobs, to ship U.S. jobs overseas, and limit taxation on corporations, which is helping to lead to the revenue crisis that we have. We have a crisis in being able to raise money from the wealthiest corporations and make them pay their due, ensure that they're not just banking profits, ensure that they're actually paying their fair share. While these politicians, who are working at the direction and the aid of these corporations, are insisting on cuts to Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, proposals that are in this secret set of documents, this trove of documents, meanwhile, they're insisting that we cannot possibly raise revenue from the wealthiest corporations in the world and that we have to cut taxes, cut capital gains, cut spending. And what we've seen from the Bush tax cuts is that that money was banked. It wasn't used to create jobs. That policy has failed as a job creation tool.

AMY GOODMAN: Lisa Graves, very quickly, we're talking to you in Madison, Wisconsin, of course the home of the great uprising this year of public workers and all of their supporters. It's also the home of the John Birch Society, in Appleton, Wisconsin. Can you talk specifically about the Koch brothers, ALEC, and its effect on Wisconsin and on healthcare in general, the issue of repealing the healthcare legislation that's been passed?

LISA GRAVES: Sure. Well, one of our fellows, our senior fellow for healthcare, Wendell Potter, has talked about that at length in The Nation magazine this week as part of this joint effort to make the public aware of what's been going on. And it's quite clear, from the materials that are in this trove of documents at alecexposed.org, that ALEC has been moving behind the scenes on an array of issues to privatize Social Security, to privatize Medicaid, to privatize Medicare with these voucher systems. And we know their public face is obviously that they are against healthcare reform, and they've been moving in the states to try to help foment a resistance in the states to healthcare reform. But when you look at the set of materials that's in this trove, you can see for your own eyes, beyond the rhetoric, the real details of what's in these provisions.

And I would say that this hostility to public institutions, to the public having its own set of ways to move our country forward through public education, through public institutions, is under attack, and it has been under attack, by really the radical ideology that David and Charles Koch have fueled through their foundations and fueled through the funding of Koch Industries and ALEC and other organizations. And this ideology is one that seeks to basically increase private profits at public expense. What a voucher program is in the public school system, for example, basically takes your tax dollars, gives them to a private institutionin many instances, a private, for-profit school companyand basically pays their profits, pays for their CEOs, at the expense of actually putting that money into a school system for all children in America.

And so, these roots, I think, do trace back to a radical agenda, to seeds of an idea, ideas that were planted by their father and others. And they have nurtured these seeds with literally millions and millions and millions of dollars through this infrastructure of think tanks. What ALEC does for people like David and Charles Koch and others is it makesit gives them a way to make their vision of the world legally binding on the rest of us, when these resolutions, these so-called model bills, are then pushed out through legislators into legislatures across the country and become law.

AMY GOODMAN: Lisa Graves, we want to thank you very much for being with us, executive director of Center for Media and Democracy, speaking to us from Madison, Wisconsin. We will link to your website at alecexposed.org.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Peter - thank you for posting.

The scumbags of ALEC could also find a home in the War on Workers directory.

[Peter Lemkin]

Corporate Board

As of 2011:[1]
CenterPoint 360, W. Preston Baldwin - Chairman
Altria Group, Daniel Smith
American Bail Coalition, William Carmichael, Jerry Watson
AT&T, William Leahy
Bayer Corp., Sandy Oliver
Coca-Cola Company, Gene Rackley
Diageo, Kenneth Lane
Energy Future Holdings, Sano Blocker
ExxonMobil Corporation, Randall Smith
GlaxoSmithKline, John Del Giorno
Intuit, Inc., Bernie McKay
Johnson & Johnson, Don Bohn
Koch Companies Public Sector, Mike Morgan
Kraft Food, Inc., Derek Crawford
Peabody Energy, Kelly Mader
Pfizer Inc., Michael Hubert
PhRMA, Jeff Bond
Reed Elsevier, Inc., Teresa Jennings
Reynolds American, David Powers
Salt River Project, Russell Smoldon
State Farm Insurance Co., Roland Spies
United Parcel Service (UPS)[2], Richard McArdle
Wal-Mart Stores, Maggie Sans

For-Profit Corporations

A
Abbott Laboratories[3]
Alliant Utilities -Interstate Power Company (now Alliant Energy)[3]
Altria Group[1]
AmerenCIPS[3]
AmerenUE[3]
American Express Company[3]
American Stores-Jewel/OSCO[3]
Amoco Corporation[3]
Amway Corporation[3]
Archer Daniels Midland[3]
ARCO[3]
Arizona Public Service Company[4]
Arthur Anderson[3]
AT&T[1]

B
Bank of America[3]
Baxter Healthcare Corporation[3]
Bayer Corp.[1]
Bell Atlantic PA[3]
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas[3]
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association[3]
Boehringer Ingelheim[5]
BP America, Inc.[3]
Burroughs Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline)[5]

C
Caliber System, Inc.[3]
Cargill, Inc.[3]
Caterpillar, Inc.[3]
CenterPoint 360[1]
Central Reserve Life[5]
Chevron Corporation[3]
Chlorine Chemistry Council[3]
Chrysler Corporation[3]
CIBA-GEIGY[5]
Coca-Cola Company[1]
Comcast[6]
Commonwealth Edison Company (now Exelon)[3]
Connections Academy[7]
Coors Brewing Company[3]
Cornell Abraxas[3]
Corrections Corporation of America[8]

D
Deere & Company[3]
Diageo[1]
DuPont[3]

E
Energy Future Holdings[1]
Enron Corporation[3]
Environmental Management Corporation[3]
ExxonMobil Corporation[1]

F
FedEx[2]
Fidelity Investments[3]
First Chicago NBD[3]
Fremont Company[3]
Fruit of the Loom (a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway)[3]

G
Gaylord Container[3]
GEICO[3]
Genentech, Inc.[5]
General Electric Medical Systems[5]
General Motors Corporation[3]
George K. Baum & Company[3]
GlaxoSmithKline[1]
Golden Rule Insurance[5]
Growmark Inc.[3]
GTE Corporation (now Verizon)[3]
Guarantee Trust Life Insurance[9]

H
Hancor, Inc. (now part of Advanced Drainage Systems)[3]
Harris Trust and Savings Bank (Harris Bank)[3]
Hoechst-Roussell Pharmaceutical Corporation[5]
Hoffman-La Roche[5]
Hoffman-La Roche, Inc.[3]
Household International[3]
Humana Corporation[5]

I
Illinois Power Company[3]
Illinois Tool Works[3]
Imperial Chemical Industries Pharmaceuticals (acquired by AkzoNobel in January 2008)[10][5]
Industrial Biotechnology Association[5]
Inland Steel Industries[3]
International Game Technology[11]
International Paper[3]
Intuit, Inc.[1]

J
Johnson & Johnson[1]
Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc. (now Vivendi)[3]

K
Koch Industries[1]
Kraft Food, Inc.[1]

L
LaSalle National Bank[3]
Lederle Laboratories[5]
Logix Solutions, Inc.[3]
Long Term Care, Inc.[5]

M
McDonalds Corporation[2]
MEGA Life & Health Insurance[3]
Merck, Sharp & Dohme[5]
Microsoft Corporation[3]
MidAmerican Energy Company[3]
Miller Brewing Company[3]
Motorola, Inc.[3]
Mt. Carmel Public Utility Company[3]
Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.[5]

N
Nationwide Insurance[5]
Navistar[3]
NICOR, Inc.[3]
Novartis[3]

O

P
Parke-Davis[5]
Peabody Energy[1]
Peoples Energy Corporation[3]
Pfizer Inc.[1]
PFL Life Insurance Company[5]
Pharmacia & Upjohn[3]
Phillips Petroleum Company[3]
Pinnacle West Capital[12]

Q

R
Reed Elsevier, Inc.[1]
Reynolds American[1]
Rhone-Poulenc Rorer[3][5]
R.R. Donnelley & Sons[3]

S
Salt River Project[1]
Sanofi-Aventis[1]
Sara Lee Corporation[3]
Schering-Plough (since acquired by Merck)[5]
Shell Oil Company[13]
Solvay Pharmaceutical[5]
Sprint / United Telephone Company of Texas[3]
State Farm Insurance Co.[1]
Sundstrand Corporation[3]

T
Texaco Inc.[3]
The Boeing Corporation[3]
The Traveler's Companies[5]

U
Union Pacific Corporation[3]
United Airlines[3]
United Parcel Service (UPS)[1][2][2]
U.S. Generating Company[3]
UST Public Affairs Inc. (now United States Smokeless Tobacco Company[3]
US West, Inc. (later Qwest Communications, and CenturyLink as of April 2011)[3]

V
Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC)[3]
Verizon Communications, Inc.[1]
Viad Corp.[3]

W
Wackenhut Corrections (now G4S)[3]
Wallace Laboratories[5]
Wal-Mart Stores[1]
Washington Times[3]
Wausau Insurance Companies[3] * Wendy's International Inc. (now the Wendy's/Arby's Group)[3]
Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories (now Pfizer)[3]

X

Y

Z
Zurich Insurance[3]

Trade Groups

A
Air Transport Association of America [3]
American Bail Coalition[1]
American Bankers Association[2]
American Council of Life Insurance[3]
American gas association[14]
American Plastics Council[3]
American Trucking Association[2]
Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois[3]
Association of Health Insurance Agents[5]

B

C
Carpet and Rug Institute[15]
Cigar Association of America, Inc.[3]

D
Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS)[3]

E

F

G
Georgia Medical Assocation[5]
Grocery Manufacturers of America[3]

H
Health Insurance Association of America (merged with American Association of Health Plans in 2003 to become America's Health Insurance Plans or AHIP)[5]

I
Illinois Corn Marketing Board[3]
Illinois Energy Association[3]
Illinois Financial Services Association[3]
Illinois Petroleum Council[3]
Illinois Retail Merchants Association[3]
Illinois Road Builders Association[3]
Illinois Soybean Association[3]
Illinois State Medical Society[3]

J

K

L

M

N
National Association for Home Care[5]
National Association of Charter School Authorizers[16]
National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies[17][2]
National Association of the Self-Employed[5]
National Beer Wholesalers Association[2]
National Business Association[5]
National Federation of Independent Businesses[5]
National Health Insurance[5]
National Pawn Brokers Association[8]
National Pork Producers Association[3]
Non-Bank Funds Transmitters Group[3]
Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Association[5]

O

P
PhRMA[1]

Q

R

S
Steel Recycling Institute[3]

T
TechAmerica
Texas Medical Association[5]
Tobacco Institute[3]

U

V

W
Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America[8]

X

Y

Z

Law Firms
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP[18]
Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP[19]

Think Tanks and Other Non-Profit Groups

A

B

C
Center for Competitive Politics[8]
Center for Education Reform[3]
Center for Energy and the Environment[20]
Center for Tenth Amendment Studies[21]
Citizens in Charge[8]
Council for Affordable Health Insurance[5]

D

E
E&M Charities[3] (dissolved in 2010)[22]
Electricity Consumers Research Council[3]

F
Foundation for Fair Civil Justice[23]
Freedom Foundation[24]
Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice[25]

G
Goldwater Institute[26]

H
Heartland Institute[27]

I
Illinois Policy Institute[28]
Institute for Policy Innovation[29]

J

K

L

M
Mackinac Center for Public Policy[30]

N
National Rifle Association[31]
National Taxpayers Union[32]

O

P
Prison Fellowship Ministries[8]

Q

R
Reason Foundation[33]

S
Stop Child Predators[34]), Corporate Co-chair[35]

T
Texas Public Policy Foundation[36]

U

V

W
Washington Policy Center[37]

X

Y

Z

References
↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 American Legislative Exchange Council [Private Enterprise Board, organization website, accessed June 9, 2011
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 American Legislative Exchange Council Private Sector Executive Committee, organization website, accessed June 14, 2011
↑ 3.000 3.001 3.002 3.003 3.004 3.005 3.006 3.007 3.008 3.009 3.010 3.011 3.012 3.013 3.014 3.015 3.016 3.017 3.018 3.019 3.020 3.021 3.022 3.023 3.024 3.025 3.026 3.027 3.028 3.029 3.030 3.031 3.032 3.033 3.034 3.035 3.036 3.037 3.038 3.039 3.040 3.041 3.042 3.043 3.044 3.045 3.046 3.047 3.048 3.049 3.050 3.051 3.052 3.053 3.054 3.055 3.056 3.057 3.058 3.059 3.060 3.061 3.062 3.063 3.064 3.065 3.066 3.067 3.068 3.069 3.070 3.071 3.072 3.073 3.074 3.075 3.076 3.077 3.078 3.079 3.080 3.081 3.082 3.083 3.084 3.085 3.086 3.087 3.088 3.089 3.090 3.091 3.092 3.093 3.094 3.095 3.096 3.097 3.098 3.099 3.100 3.101 3.102 3.103 3.104 Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, "Corporations and Trades Associations that Fund ALEC," Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States: The Untold Story Behind the American Legislative Exchange Council, online report, 2003
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force, organization website, accessed May 26, 2011
↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 5.18 5.19 5.20 5.21 5.22 5.23 5.24 5.25 5.26 5.27 5.28 5.29 5.30 5.31 5.32 5.33 5.34 American Legislative Exchange Council Keeping the Promise: Making Health Care Accessible and Affordable for All Americans, January 1993
↑ Steven Titch ALEC Adopts Model VoIP Bill, Info Tech & Telecom News, Heartland Institute publication, September 2007
↑ Mickey Revenaugh, ALEC website, Accessed May, 2011.
↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 American Legislative Exchange Council Public Safety and Elections Task Force Private Sector Executive Committee, organization website, accessed June 2, 2011
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Health and Human Services Task Force, organization website, accessed May 27, 2011
↑ AkzoNobel Information about the former ICI, press release, accessed April 21, 2009.
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Feb. 2009, organization newsletter, February 2009, p. 5
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force, organization website, accessed May 26, 2011
↑ The Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel G. Edward Pickle, organization biography, September 17, 2007
↑ Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force, ALEC website, Accessed May, 2011.
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Jan. 2011, organization newsletter, January 2011, p. 12
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Nov./Dec. 2009, organization newsletter, November/December 2009, p. 24
↑ National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) American Legislative Exchange Council Adopts NAMIC Model Legislation, press release, June 11, 2004
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force, organization website, accessed May 26, 2011
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Civil Justice Task Force, organization website, accessed May 26, 2011
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council, Inside ALEC Nov.-Dec. 2010, organizational newsletter, November-December 2010
↑ Ibid., p. 19
↑ Iowa Nonprofit Research Center, University of Iowa, "E&M Charities," Iowa Grants Guide, online profile, accessed July 2, 2011
↑ Foundation for Fair Civil Justice Partner Organizations: American Legislative Exchange Council, organization website, accessed June 11, 2011
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force, organization website, accessed May 28, 2011
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Sep./Oct. 2009, organization newsletter, September/October 2009, p. 6
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Apr. 2009, organization newsletter, April 2009, p. 20
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Jun. 2010, organization newsletter, June 2010, p. 21
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Apr. 2010, organization newsletter, April 2010, p. 11
↑ Telecommunications and Information Technology, ALEC website, Accessed May, 2011
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Jan. 2011, organization newsletter, January 2011, p. 15
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council, "Tara Mica," organization website, accessed May, 2011
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Jan. 2011, organization newsletter, January 2011, p. 4
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC May 2011, organization newsletter, May 2011, p. 17
↑ Stop Child Predators About Us - Executive Team, organization website, accessed May 28, 2011
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Public Safety and Elections Task Force, organization website, accessed May 28, 2011
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Feb. 2011, organization newsletter, February 2011, p. 21
↑ American Legislative Exchange Council Inside ALEC Jan. 2011, organization newsletter, January 2011, p. 13

External resources
Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, "Corporations and Trades Associations that Fund ALEC," Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States: The Untold Story Behind the American Legislative Exchange Council, online report, 2003.

[Magda Hassan]

[URL="http://huffingtonpost.com/mary-bottari"]
[/URL]

Mary Bottari

Center for Media and Democracy

ALEC Exposed: Milton Friedman's Little Shop of Horrors




Although he passed away in 2006, states are now grappling with many of the toxic notions left behind by University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman.
In her groundbreaking book, The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein coined the term "disaster capitalism" for the rapid-fire corporate re-engineering of societies still reeling from shock. The master of disaster? Privatization and free market guru Milton Friedman. Friedman advised governments in economic crisis to follow strict austerity measures, combining radical cuts in social services with the full-scale privatization of their more lucrative assets. Many countries in Latin America auctioned off everything standing -- from energy and water utilities to Social Security -- to for profit multinational firms, crushing unions and other dissenters along the way.
Now, U.S. states are in crisis. The 2008 Wall Street financial meltdown, caused by years of deregulation and lack of government oversight, cost Americans $14 trillion in lost wealth and eight million lost jobs. Today some 25 million are unemployed or underemployed. This jobs crisis has tanked federal and state tax receipts, adding billions to state budget shortfalls.
As the prime movers of this deregulatory agenda, the GOP spin machine has launched into hyper-drive in an attempt to wash the blood from their hands. Governors across the nation, backed by Wall Street's Club for Growth and the Koch Brother's Americans for Prosperity, are working hard to convince average Americans the a jobs crisis is actually a deficit crisis and that the culprits are not the big banks on Wall Street, but state, county and municipal workers.
In lockstep, governors are reaching for an almost identical set of "solutions," to their financial woes: massive tax breaks for big corporations, constitutional amendments to prevent states from raising revenue, the slashing of critical public services, the busting of unions and the privatization of every possible aspect of government including public schools -- long a Friedman agenda item. (See the video here.)
The similarity of these measures has not gone unnoticed, but now we have found the fountainhead of these radical measures: the American Legislative Exchange Council. (ALEC)
ALEC Exposed
This week the Center for Media and Democracy made available to the public over 800 ALEC "model" bills and resolutions on a new website, ALECexposed.org. We display the documents, crafted by corporations, and right-wing state legislators behind closed doors, so that citizens across the country can now trace the origins of many of the radical proposals moving in their states. (Our site contains lists of ALEC members, corporations, task forces, scholars, funders and more.)
Milton Friedman famously said: "Only a crisis -- actual or perceived -- produces real changes. When the crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable." Think of ALEC as Milton Friedman's little shop of horrors where legislators across the country can easily access the "ideas laying around."
ALEC is not a lobby, and it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Behind closed doors, corporations hand legislators the law changes they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Corporations are "equal" members. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. Corporations and trade groups fund almost all of ALEC's operations directly through hefty membership dues and indirectly through corporate foundations, like the Charles G. Koch Foundation.
Corporations, like Koch Industries, Phillip Morris, Reynolds, Kraft, Wal-Mart, Bayer, Coca Cola, State Farm and more, sit on ALEC task forces and vote with state legislators to approve "model" bills in secret. They wine and dine legislators at swank hotels, with child care provided, fundraisers and other perks pre-arranged. After a swell time, participating legislators -- overwhelmingly conservative Republicans -- bring the bills home and introduce them into statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations. ALEC cuts out the middleman and the state legislators themselves become "super lobbyists" for the ALEC agenda.
Disaster Capitalism in the States
In December of 2008, while the economy was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs a month, one group was treating the catastrophe as a terrific opportunity. Governor Mitch Daniels reminded an ALEC gathering that the collapse of the U.S. economy was "a terrific time to shrink government!"
In 2010, Republicans won the governorship and control of both houses in 21 states. ALEC shock troops swung into high gear. In Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Maine a steady stream of bills emerged from Milton Friedman's shop.

Starving State Government of Revenue to Make It Dysfunctional and Despised: ALEC members are introducing hundreds of bills to grant tax breaks to big corporations and to cripple state's ability to raise revenue, including new constitutional rules to limiting state taxing powers. Grover Norquist would love these lethal proposals.

Privatizing Schools and Other Government Services: ALEC bills encompass over 20 years of effort to privatize public education through an ever-expanding school voucher system, to turn Medicare and Medicaid into voucher programs,and to privatize almost all aspects of government including toll roads and bridges, pensions, foster care and prisons. Foreign firms like Maquarie and Cintra, which are snapping up U.S. roads and bridges, are also using ALEC to push model bills.
Race to the Bottom in Wages for Americans: ALEC bills would repeal state or local laws that boost workers wages such as "living wage" and prevailing wage laws. ALEC bills call a starting minimum wage an "unfunded mandate" but think that prison labor is just terrific. ALEC also supports a radical "free trade" agenda that sends U.S. manufacturing and an increasing number of service-sector jobs overseas.
Defunding Traditional Supporters of the Democratic Party: ALEC purports to be nonpartisan, but only 1 of 104 legislators in ALEC's leadership is a Democrat. ALECexposed.org contains dozens of bills to defund public sector and private sector unions and to make it harder for trial lawyers to bring cases when consumers are injured or killed by dangerous products.
Help Needed!
ALEC's agenda is vast. These bills and many more are moving in all 50 states. We need your help! Visit ALECexposed.org today, see the corporations and legislators pursuing this agenda and help us track the bills moving in your state. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter at #ALECexposed and Take Action to tell the ALEC corporate cabal to "Dump ALEC!"

[/COLOR]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-botta...tml?ref=tw

[Magda Hassan]

An excellent wiki webite to watch and expose and defeat ALEC
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

[Peter Lemkin]

The ALEC Board of Scholars includes[1]:
Kay Coles James - President and Founder of the Gloucester Institute;[2] and formerly Senior Fellow and Director of "The Citizenship Project" at the Heritage Foundation, Dean of the School of Government at Regent University, Secretary of Health and Human Resources for former Virginia Governor George Allen (where she implemented Virginia's controversial welfare reform initiative), Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during George W. Bush's administration,[3] Senior Vice President of the Family Research Council, Associate Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during George H.W. Bush's administration, member of the National Commission on Children during Ronald Reagan's administration, and Boardmember of Focus on the Family[4]
Arthur B. Laffer - Inventor of the "Laffer Curve," often called "the father of supply-side economics," Co-chair of the Policy Council for the Free Enterprise Fund,[5] a lobbying organization founded by Stephen Moore and other Club for Growth members;[6] and formerly member of the Economic Policy Advisory Board during Ronald Reagan's administration and active in his 1980 and 1984 presidential campaigns, and Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget during Richard Nixon's administration[7]
Stephen Moore - Founder of the Club for Growth and member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board[8] who has been called "a voodoo economist";[9] and formerly: Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee under Chairman Dick Armey (TX) and Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation.[10]
Victor Schwartz - Partner at the Washington D.C. offices of Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP -- a law and lobbying firm that has represented big tobacco companies such as Philip Morris (now Altria Group),[11] big pharmaceutical companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline,[12] and big technology companies such as Sprint Nextel,[13] Microsoft[14] and Sony.[15] He has been very active in the arena of tort reform and has been called "the undisputed king of tort reform."<refname="terrycarter">Terry Carter Piecemeal Tort Reform, ABA Journal, December 2001</ref> and considered one of Washington, D.C.'s 50 top lobbyists;[16] Formerly a lawyer and lobbyist at Crowell & Moring for 21 years;<refname="terrycarter"/> Director of the Federal Insurance Administration from 1978-1980, and a professor and dean at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.[17]
Richard Vedder - Economics professor at Ohio University,[18] and Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute[19] and theAmerican Enterprise Institute;[20] and formerly a commentator for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy on such issues as spending on public schools,[21], for the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution on issues such as immigration and labor, and Board member of the National Taxpayers Union.[22]
Bob Williams - Founder and Senior Fellow of the Freedom Foundation-- previously known as the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a libertarian organization whose mission "is to advance individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited, accountable government"--[23] Board Member of the State Policy Network and a "visiting fellow" at the Mercatus Center; and formerly an auditor for the Pentagon and Post Office, and a five term state legislator in Washington State.[24]Contents

Scholars' Connections to Charles and David Koch
Kay Coles James previously worked at the Heritage Foundation, which has received funding from the Koch Family Foundations.[25]
Arthur B. Laffer's Laffer Center for Global Economic Growth is tied to Koch Industries through its Vice Chairman, Richard Fink, and Executive Director Wayne Gable -- both prominent Koch executives -- and a $100,000 grant from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation in 2009.[26]
Stephen Moore previously worked at the Cato Institute, which was co-founded by Charles G. Koch[27] and has been largely funded by the Koch Family Foundations,[28] and also at the Heritage Foundation, which has been funded by Koch money.[29]
Bob Williams is a visiting fellow with George Mason University's Mercatus Center State and Local Policy Project, a Charles Koch-funded project, to the tune of over $9 million since 2002.[30]

[Magda Hassan]

Journalist Kicked out of ALEC Conference, Threatened With Arrest
by Eric Carlson

In late July, shortly after the launch of ALECexposed.org, Lousiana State Rep.Noble Ellington, a Republican from the state's 20th district and the national chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council, spoke to NPR about the recent spate of criticism leveled at his organization. When discussing the behind-closed-doors process used to craft ALEC model legislation, Ellington dismissed NPR's concerns, assuring interviewer Terry Gross that the public "have an opportunity to talk to their legislators about the legislation -- so I don't see how you can get more transparent than that."

Similarly, Ohio State Senator Bill Seitz, a former "ALEC Legislator of the Year," laughed off the notion of ALEC's secrecy secrecy, telling a Cincinnati newspaper that the organization is just like any other professional association.

So it was with these assurances that I headed to New Orleans for ALEC's 38th Annual Conference. Surely as a member of the fourth estate, the good folks at ALEC would value my investigative efforts and grant me access to their back room dealings.

Boy, was I wrong.

Denied Access, Kicked out, and then Kicked out Again

After filling out my registration form to receive press credentials, I was told by an alarmed ALEC intern to wait while she fetched her boss. While I did not think she had ever heard my name, the look on her face made me think that perhaps she had heard of our new project ALEC Exposed.org. A very stern looking gentleman -- Ted Wagnon of Vox Global Communications -- arrived and told me my application would be denied on the grounds that the Center for Media and Democracy was an "advocacy organization." I asked Wagnon for a written explanation, and he handed me ALEC's Media Policy, which bears no mention of "advocacy organizations." Instead, news outlets funded by a "think-tank, political party, lobbying organization, trade association, or corporation" are forbidden from registering. CMD complies with this criteria even though most media outlets (owned by major corporations) do not.

Discouraged by by dismissal from the registration table, but not defeated, I headed to the Marriott hotel lobby to do some writing and ALEC sightseeing. I was greeted by there by a contracted security guard with no hotel affiliation, and told to leave. I asked if I was being kicked out of the hotel, to which replied that I would be removed if I didn't depart immediately. I left, a bit miffed. A quick phone call later in the day to Marriott management confirmed that I by sitting in the lobby filing a story I had not violated any of the hotel's rules, and would be welcome back in the lobby the next day.


Thursday morning I sat down once again in the Marriott lobby, where I decided to start tweeting the names of some of the ALEC corporate lobbyists. Apparently tweets like, "South Carolina Rep. Liston Barfield #spotted at #ALEC Annual Meeting. He's wearing a name tag that says 'Legacy Member'" and "Some legislators have 'New Member' ribbons attached to their name tags. Makes it easier for the corporations to track them down" drew the attention of ALEC's communications team. A senior staffer raced towards me, asked if I was Eric Carlson, and then screamed "that's him!" (See the offensive tweets here).

Marriott security guards swarmed to where I was standing, demanding again that I leave the hotel or "face arrest." I escaped before they could follow through on their other promise of taking my picture for their permanent records. My only comfort? Al Jazeera English was also denied credentials on the grounds that ALEC was not an "international" conference -- even though it has an International Relations Task Force whose priority results in the offshoring of U.S. jobs and even though international politicians were addressing the conference.

On the Trail of Public Policy on Bourbon Street

The hypocrisy of ALEC's media policy is astonishing. Not only are vast majority of news organizations owned by major media corporations (perhaps with the exception of Al Jazeera), but the majority of ALEC's conference events and even speaker are sponsored by Fortune 500 firms and trade associations. Governor Bobby Jindal was sponsored by big PhRMA. Dick Armey by Visa. I am not kidding.

While ALEC might not like independent media outlets like ours, they do love big media conglomerates and avidly promote Big Media's agenda. ALEC members like Comcast, seem worried about feisty municipalities that think broadband should be offered as a public service, so ALEC's Municipal Telecommunications Private Industry Safeguards Act quashes the authority of municipalities to launch their own broadband services. ALEC members ATT, Verizon and now Time Warner seem worried that the FCC might stand up for consumers; ALEC's resolution on broadband regulation takes a "brave" stand against the FCC's authority to enforce Net Neutrality rules and for the destruction of the Internet as a platform for innovation, growth and the free exchange of ideas as we know it.

It is no wonder that Time Warner invited ALEC legislators and corporate lobbyists to a swank dinner at Emeril's Delmonico Thursday night. As I file this report, I am headed over there right now to get turned away from another great ALEC event by the people who say they have nothing to hide. Then I am going to explore rumors of a smoke-filled back room on Bourbon Street sponsored by ALEC board member RJ Reynolds. I just wish I were kidding.

[Magda Hassan]

Another ALEC trick at Federal Level EXPOSED
byBob Sloan


By now many thought they had heard everything to be heard about ALEC and their un-democratic activities. This is simply not true. As I said to a fellow Exposing ALEC member earlier today..."we once thought ALEC was the complete picture of an 'Evil Empire', but after all this research we have to realize that in reality ALEC is merely a single frame of a huge panoramic picture." ALEC only represents one tool in the arsenal of a well organized, well thought out, well funded and well oiled cabal. Using ALEC's ability to advance legislation beneficial to the collective is ALEC's purpose for existence. It is why Koch, Scaife, Coors' and DeVos' money is invested in their activities.

How is this money and participation between all these "Family" foundations coordinated? Twice a year Charles and David Koch hold secret, by invitation only "meetings". Last year's July meeting, the agenda and the attendants were discovered by accident and published for all to see by ThinkProgress.org. As can be determined by the documents, representatives of the Scaife's, Coors' and DeVos' foundations were in attendance. The Corporations were also represented along with members of the Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute and Koch funded universities such as George Mason University. The rest of those in attendance represent the upper echelon of conservative society. Through these meetings all are given their marching orders, the foundations told where to invest their considerable wealth and the elite and media representatives...? They're told to use key phrases developed by the cabal to describe in sarcastic terms, the Democratic efforts. They're told to use "socialism", "Obamacare" and "EPA Train Wreck" at every opportunity to reinforce the collective's pursuits against this leftist "ideology." ALEC quickly issues statements, "papers" on key issues and to the public, complaining that Obamacare is socialist medicine, the EPA Train Wreck is not working and each of these position papers is supported by statistics, graphs and professor-like documents provided to them by GMU, Heartland Institute, Reason Foundation or the Heritage Foundation.

The corporations dutifully attend meetings to provide an instructive voice - and purpose - to the legislators. Much of the money begins with the family money of those mentioned above, it is filtered through many of the below the fold listed organizations, foundations, institutes:

American Council of Trustees and Alumni
American Legislative Exchange Council
Atlas Economic Research Foundation
Bill of Rights Institute
Center for Excellence in Education
Fund for American Studies
Heritage Foundation
Institute for Energy Research
Institute for Humane Studies
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
National Center for Policy Analysis
National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation
National Taxpayers Union Foundation
Reason Foundation
Students for Liberty
PARTNERS BASED OUTSIDE OF DC

Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions
Foundation for Economic Education
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
Illinois Policy Institute
Jack Miller Center
John W. Pope Civitas Institute
John William Pope Foundation
Lucy Burns Institute
Sam Adams Alliance
South Carolina Policy Council
Texas Public Policy Foundation

ADDITIONAL PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
Partner organizations change from session to session; additional organizations the Foundation has worked with through the Koch Internship Program and/or Koch Associate Program include:

Acton Institute
American Enterprise Institute
American Spectator Foundation
Americans for Tax Reform Foundation
Boys and Girls Club of South Central Kansas
Cato Institute
Center for College Affordability and Productivity
Commonwealth Foundation
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Federalist Society
Free to Choose Network
Galen Institute
George C. Marshall Institute
George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center
Hudson Institute
Independent Women's Forum
John Locke Foundation
John William Pope Center for Higher Education
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship
Philanthropy Roundtable
State Policy Network
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
Washington Legal Foundation
Youth Entrepreneurs Kansas

Our research has shown that all of the foregoing are interconnected and thus much of the Koch ideology and conservative rhetoric is carried along through the above entities with their money. Koch does not simply give their money out without keeping an eye on what those dollars are being used for. Every year Koch provides "interns" to serve in several of these key "organizations:"

American Ideas Institute, publisher of American Conservative Magazine
American Legislative Exchange Council
American Spectator Foundation
Atlas Economic Research Foundation
Bill of Rights Institute
Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
The Fund for American Studies
George Washington Regulatory Studies Center
George Marshall Institute
Hudson Institute
Independent Women's Forum
Institute for Energy Research
Institute for Humane Studies
Leadership Institute
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship
Philanthropy Roundtable
Reason Foundation
Searle Civil Justice Institute at George Mason School of Law
State Policy Network
By doing this they accomplish two goals; first they provide workers for these organizations paid $10.00 per hour by Koch. This increases staffing for all of these organizations without costing them a cent in payroll (any doubts that this is all written off by Koch as charitable work for non-profits?). Secondly it gives Koch as many as ten sets of eyes and ears within each of those entities that can be used to ensure the messages and agenda are being met and followed.
Then we learned that Koch was involved in "Buying" the curricula and professorships at key public universitiesthrough the discovery of their 2008 $1.5 million "endowment" to Florida State University with strings attached:

The president of FSU, who defended the Koch deal, did not mention that such outside endowments are skewing the curriculum at state universities in unfortunate ways.
But here is the objectionable thing, which he admits, about the way the search for the positions was conducted:

These 50 applications were sent for input to an advisory board approved by the Koch Foundation. The advisory board, formed in 2008, consisted of two FSU faculty members, both Eminent Scholars in Economics, and a Ph.D. economist appointed by the Koch Foundation. (It is not unusual for a donor to have representation in an advisory capacity.)

This allegation is simply untrue. It is not the case that academic institutions routinely insert an outside advisory board into the middle of the search process. In fact, this way of proceeding is absolutely outrageous, more particularly because one of the members of the advisory board was not even on the faculty! Moreover, it is invidious for the Kochs to give some FSU faculty more of a voice in hiring than others.

On top of this shock to FSU students, their families and alumni...we learn that it has been done over and over again, university by university and in each case involves gaining control over economic departments in public universities. Another one is Utah State University:

Utah State University: The Charles Koch Foundation has given nearly $700,000 to Utah State University, mostly for the Huntsman School of Business. The money has been used to hire five new faculty members, and establish a program for undergraduates to enroll and learn about Charles Koch's "Science of Liberty" management theory. Professor Randy Simmons, the "Charles G. Koch Professor of Political Economy" at the school, helps select students who must provide information about their ideological interests in their application form to the Koch program. Simmons also works for several Koch-funded front groups, and writes papers against environmental regulations. Charles Koch's book, "The Science of Success," a book Forbes mocked for proclaiming a "Marxist faith in fixed laws' that govern human well-being,'" is part of the required reading list for the program. A representative for Utah State did not return ThinkProgress' calls about conditional strings attached to the Koch grant.
So here's the pattern and methodology used by Koch; first they use ALEC's influence upon legislators to attack funding of public schools and universities. As the colleges lose public funding and are faced with cutting back educational programs...in steps Ol Chucky and Davy Boy with hands full of money ready to step in and "save" the collegiate programs. All they want in exchange is the ability to instill their bullshit economics theory, pick the professors and the students. In this way the find fodder from within that generation to cultivate for positions within government, interns and for other conservative needs in the years ahead.
If you think this is merely a coincidence and does not represent a well thought out agenda...let me now provide the tiny piece of our research that corroborates just how devious these folks are. Devious, well thought out and executed precisely as intended.

In 2003 ALEC drafted their Animal EnterpriseTerrorism Act and adopted it as model legislation. This was introduced in various states and the core of the bill was designed to allow for prosecuting those activist that protest on behalf of animal rights. If money is lost to businesses operating chicken farms, pig raising facilities or laboratories using animals for research are protested against, the activists can be labeled as terrorists and prosecuted under terrorism laws. Bad enough they introduced this in the states, but worse they found a way through their alumni and sympathetic Republican U.S. Congressmen to introduce and pass this model legislation at the federal level.

ALEC Alumni, Senator Inhofe (R-OK) co-sponsored this ALEC written legislation with Senator Feinstein (D-CA) in the U.S. Senate (S.3880) and Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI)(HR 4239). In both the House and Senate the bills were put on "Fast Track" which is normally used for "non-controversial bipartisan legislation," these "fast track" rules limit debate to forty minutes, prohibit bill amendments, and require the approval of only two thirds of members present on the floor. First the bill was passed in the U.S. Senate by a voice vote then the House took it up and sponsors there found many objections to the legislation. Knowing passage was not assured but a vote was scheduled for 6:00 pm on November 13, 2006, the Republicans led by Representative Sensenbrenner R_WI) used the fast track provision three hours before the scheduled time for the vote when other members were unaware of the change in schedule. Once introduced Rep. Kucinich (D_OH) walked in and protested the way in which the fast tracking was being used and asked Sensenbrenner to withhold the vote until the 6:00 pm time originally scheduled so other members could take part in the discussion and vote.

Sensenbrenner refused and within 3 minutes he put it to a vote and with only 6 members present, 5 voted for it and it passed by a 2/3 majority. It was signed into law by President Bush within two weeks.

In this manner ALEC legislation was able to become law with only 5 of the 435 House members voting for this ALEC written legislation! During our research we discovered another scary fact: the Congressional records office has no record of who was present and voted, and thus the identities of those who voted for the Bill remain anonymous to researchers and the public. The official Congressional report for that day simply advises that the bill passed by a majority voice vote of 5 to 1 and no record of those participating in the vote were reported to the Congressional Records Office.

As I said above, well funded, strategically well thought out, organized and tactically executed - not at the state level, at the federal level, where ALEC claims over and over again they don't have or apply any influence. This is just one documented case of this. With the research incomplete, I have to wonder just how many other ALEC model legislation has been slipped into Congress and passed into federal law in this manner?

Kossacks who want to know the answer to this last question are challenged to join in the research and see if they can find other laws we live by that were passed in this manner - from ALEC.

I think it is pretty obvious and a well documented fact that today America is in the grip of not only a class war, but one that is being waged from within by a shadowy cabal who are working to take over and toss democracy out the window. One of their main goals is to reduce the wealth of the middle class and thus their ability to fight back. This is done in a manner similar to what is being done with the universities mentioned above. They remove our jobs and put them in the hands of prisoners, rendering more and more Americans jobless. They work to legislate reductions in funding for social networks and programs helping those displaced and jobless. They fight against universal health care to keep us spending more of what is left to us to maintain our health while they fight to abolish necessary government regulations to protect us from the carcinogenic and toxic emissions from their plants and factories...causing more of us to become adversely affected by the very air we breathe.

And of late they use more ALEC model legislation designed to further remove even the equity in our homes from us through their Reverse Mortgage Enabling Act - YES!, this is also an ALEC drafted and written legislation. In a report proposing the implementation of reverse mortgages, the purpose of this financing is to allow seniors to access the equity in their homes to use that money to pay for necessary healthcare insurance policies and long term care:

"Payments from a reverse mortgage can help reduce dependence on Medicaid by lowering the likelihood for spend-down. Increased use of this financial option for long-term care could result in savings to Medicaid ranging from about $3.3 to almost $5 billion annually in 2010, depending on market penetration rates increasing from 4 percent to 25 percent of older homeowners.
"As the population ages and the pressure on state Medicaid budgets rises, it becomes increasingly important to find effective ways to improve our long-term care financing system. Funding the growing demand for long-term care is a major national challenge that will require increased spending by both the public and private sectors. This study provides compelling evidence that reverse mortgages have the potential to significantly increase the funds available to pay for home and community-based long-term care. By liquidating a portion of their housing wealth, older homeowners could access a substantial amount of cash. With appropriate incentives, careful protections, and innovative products, greater use of reverse mortgages may offer additional options for seniors to manage assets to pay for long-term care at home."


The way to capitalize off of this for Medicaid is for seniors to pay their own way on extended care, hospice or other needs. This includes those seniors buying long term healthcare policies with the money advanced through the reverse mortgage. There are also provisions allowing for high interest that is compounded resulting in the loan accruing interest upon interest, and a provision to avoid usury prohibitions:
Reverse mortgage loans may be made or acquired without regard to the following provisions for other types of mortgage transactions set out in the statutes specified below;
(D) Requirements that a maximum mortgage amount be stated in the mortgage;
(E) Limitations on loan-to-value ratios;
(F) Prohibitions on balloon payments;
(G) Prohibitions on compounded interest and interest on interest;
(H) Interest rate limits under the usury statutes; and
(I) Requirements that a percentage of the loan proceeds must be advanced prior to loan assignment.

Through the Reverse Mortgage Act analysts reported there was more than $2 Trillion available as untapped equity in the homes of seniors. The cabal want to lay their hands on this money to use it to reduce Medicaid costs and thus free up state money now used for that program to be available for other uses. The Reverse Mortgage Act is but one of over 800 initiatives or model bills written by ALEC over the past two decades. The ads in the mainstream media (another of their enablers) urging seniors to take advantage of a reverse mortgages, make no mention of the true intent of the legislation.
All of us have seen the slick ads on TV about reverse mortgages. Have any of you seen the real purpose of this legislation advertised? Are most of those who are attracted to this option even aware that it is intended to allow the banks to loan them money and that for as long as the loan is in effect (not paid off) that the high interest of the loan accrues and is compounded allowing for the financial institution to earn interest on the interest that is added to the principal? Do they realize that once they pass away, their families have to pay the principal and all of the accrued interest if they want to keep a home that has possibly been in the family for generations?"

In this way the frigging banks - that stole our pensions, 401k's and retirement investments and caused our property to decrease in value by as much as 50% over the past two or three years - now have a way to pay 60 to 80 cents on the dollar and acquire the title to and rights to our homes. This serves to further reduce the money available to our children and families. The homes that slick advertising has seniors calling to turn their homes over to these lenders, is being used to quietly remove the last vestiges of wealth to the middle class. When all of this is added to the attack upon public, civilian and Union workers, legislating to abolish the minimum wage and other machinations to reduce us to a society of 300 million living in poverty conditions, with even our rights to vote taken through their legislation...these corporations and their wealthy owners will have created a Utopian (to the corporations) nation with a working class to their liking.

They envision the next and subsequent generations living in rented homes (owned by them) buying the products they sell (made by us at wages lower than now paid in China) and our children being educated (indoctrinated) with altered history to their liking and a new economy based upon their failed "trickle down economics" formula.

It's really time for all of us to awaken and pick up our pitch forks and toss these insidious bastards from our land and our nation. They are nothing more than 21st Century "Carpetbaggers" looking to eliminate all form of government control, protection and assistance to the majority and replace that with corporatocracy....

10:02 AM PT: Update: Watch this short video of ALEC and Heritage Foundation co-founder, Paul Weyrich speaking about why they opposed Hillary Clinton in 2008. See how Weyrich worries that their activities would be redefined as terrorism:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/20...el-EXPOSED

[Peter Lemkin]

That's an 'all star' cast of neofascist stink-tanks! Anything that brings the Koch brothers and the Coors family [both out and out fascist families with BILLIONS] toward mutual purpose needs to be watched carefully - and countered!

[James Lewis]

This is a list of Texas politicians who have been given money by ALEC. Check the name at the top of the list and the amount of money he was given:

PERRY, RICK $2,007,440.96

CRADDICK, TOM $878,110.89

FRASER, TROY $314,583.06

KING, PHIL $163,435.40

SELIGER, KEL $123,537.70

DRIVER, JOE $72,919.50

FLYNN, DAN $64,875.26

MADDEN, JERRY $52,750.00

CHRISTIAN, WAYNE $49,855.70

HOWARD, CHARLIE $37,058.85

MARCHANT, KENNY $25,100.00

JACKSON, JIM $24,110.55

CULBERSON, JOHN $2,000.00

$3,815,777.87