Citizens Media Resource: Coke, Pepsi, Kraft Lift the Rock ALEC Has Been Hiding Under

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Coke, Pepsi, Kraft Lift the Rock ALEC Has Been Hiding Under

ALEC: Ordinary Citizens Are Priced Out of Democracy

Giant trans-national corporations Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Kraft are dropping their memberships in ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and so is Intuit, maker of Quicken and Quickbook accounting software.

ALEC charges corporations membership fees---it's $25,000 for the Jefferson Club level, but many corporations donate much more---which are tax-deductible, and for their money the corporate interests get to huddle behind closed doors with state legislators who get their marching orders for corporate-favored legislation.

Regular citizens do not have those many thousands to donate just to get access to politicians who are ostensibly representing those citizens, not corporate special interests.

In this system which is now in control of legislation in Washington and 50 states, regular people have been priced out of democracy.

ALEC has until recently succeeded at hiding under a rock and having little light shining on its seedy, corrupt operation. But the public has been hearing more and more about ALEC in the past year, and pressure on certain corporations has started a run to the exit led by Coke, Pepsi, Kraft and Intuit, with probably more to come.

Click here for a story at PR Watch

and here for another good story at truthout

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Wish List of Research

1. Who makes money on war? And on military buying, protecting and occupying? Yeah, we already know, but let's audit this with excellent research that lays out who profited and continues to profit from our invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afganistan....or any other military activity and occupations, past or present. We have at least 823 foreign bases that the U.S. admits to; those are paid for by taxpayers, and the military bases are there principally to guard the oil for Exxon-Mobil. I believe we will find that taxpayers spend a huge amount on corporate welfare and subsidies to giant corporations, whose profits obviously are more important than the lives and limbs that are sacrificed in military actions. While we are at it, we should study who makes money from natural disasters, and how they get handed huge government contracts---in a no-bid rush, of course, since it is an emergency. There are capitalistic exploiters who feed off this as an industry; they are just not so long-established as what President Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex."

2. Economic impact of legalizing use and sale of marijuana. There's another economic stimulus and revenue raiser. It would be regulated for safety and legal for individuals and small outfits to grow and sell. With the chance for broad participation, and the exclusion of monopolistic takeover of the market, many Americans would have the opportunity to be entrepreneurs.