ALEC Exposed

[Mindcrime]

Florida state Rep. Rachel Burgin introduced a bill to lower corporate taxes, but forgot to remove evidence that she did not write the bill. She couldn't write a bill to save her soul, but it was sold already- to her corporate masters.

When Florida Rep. Rachel Burgin (R- 56) introduced a bill in November calling on the federal government to reduce taxes for corporations (HM 685), she made an embarrassing mistake. Rep. Burgin was introducing a bill she had received from the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council. A bill written by the Tax Foundation, corporate members of ALEC’s ‘Tax and Fiscal Policy task force” and a group founded and funded by major corporate interests, including the billionaire Koch brothers.

All ALEC model resolutions contain a boilerplate paragraph, describing ALEC’s adherence to free market principles and limited government. When legislators introduce one of ALEC’s bills, they normally remove this paragraph. Sometimes (but only sometimes) legislators will make some slight alterations to anALEC model bill,perhaps to include something specific to them or to their state. Rep. Burgin didn’t do that. Instead she introduced a bill that was the same as the model word-for-word, forgetting even to remove the paragraph naming ALEC and describing its principles.

As a Texas Governor might say; “Oops!”

The next day, Rep. Burgin quickly withdrew the bill hoping that no one had noticed and then re-introduced it 24-hours later, with a new bill number (HM 717), but now without the problematic paragraph. Nobody seems to have noticed until now. Source

[nogods]

Doesn't matter. the fools will say "so what? ALEC is people too!"

Which reminds me, Romney claimed he paid taxes twice because the corporations from which he received investment income paid tax and then he paid tax on the distributions. Of course, if those "corporations" are people, then it's two different "people" paying tax, not just one Romney. Which proves Romney, like most republicans, can't count.

[NBuffaloResident]

Wow, this thread is awful quiet... No cries, akin to what was had in regards to ACORN (Which all accusations were found to be baseless anyways)...

I wonder why?

[Dougles]

You act like this is the first time this has ever happened... both sides do it all the time. The Sierra Club has written half of the environmental laws we have.

[Mindcrime]

You act like this is the first time this has ever happened... both sides do it all the time. The Sierra Club has written half of the environmental laws we have.

Yes, both sides use ALEC-written legislation. But stop implying both sides are equally guilty.

In virtually all its promotional materials, ALEC calls itself "the nation's largest bipartisan, individual membership association of state legislators." This description, however, is misleading in almost every way. For starters, ALEC appears to be only nominally "bipartisan." It declines to make its membership list public, but in a current publication titled "Leaders in the States," ALEC lists 209 of its members who are in "senior leadership positions" (including its own state chairs) in the 50 state legislatures. The publication does not denote the party affiliations of these state legislators, perhaps because the "bipartisan" breakdown is so lopsided: 177 are Republicans (84.7 percent), 29 are Democrats (13.9 percent) and three others from Nebraska are officially designated as Non-Partisan (1.4 percent). Only three of ALEC's state chairs, those in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas, are Democrats. Source

[Dougles]

Yes, both sides use ALEC-written legislation. But stop implying both sides are equally guilty.

I wasn't only referring to "both sides use ALEC-written legislation"... hence the mention of the Sierra club... do you know how to read?

But hey, ObamaCare was considered bipartisan with what 2 GOP votes in the Senate? Consistency is something you lack.

[Mindcrime]

I wasn't only referring to "both sides use ALEC-written legislation"... hence the mention of the Sierra club... do you know how to read?

But hey, ObamaCare was considered bipartisan with what 2 GOP votes in the Senate? Consistency is something you lack.

You said "both sides do it all the time." You're implying a false equivalency. No one in Congress should be using this poisoned legislation, but the fact is that one side does it a lot more often and are bigger offenders of this tactic. 177 Republicans versus 29 Democrats? Consistency is something you lack--or maybe never even heard of.

[Dougles]

Yes, I said both sides do it all the time. As in both sides let lobiest write bills for them... how do you think ObamaCare was written?

Or do you think ALEC is the only group in the US?