ROBERT SCHEER --Of, by and for Big Business (new Congress Laws)

.... So what's the big revelation? That, almost 2,000 years after Jesus routed those scoundrels, the money changers have not merely reentered the temple — they are the temple. ......

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer22feb22,0,3826732.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions


ROBERT SCHEER
Of, by and for Big Business
Robert Scheer

February 22, 2005

Watching the 109th Congress, one would be forgiven for thinking our Constitution was the blueprint for a government of Big Business, by Big Business and for Big Business. Forget the people — this is Robin Hood in reverse.

Here's the agenda, as laid out by the president and the Republicans who control Congress: First, limit people's power to right wrongs done to them by corporations. Next, force people to repay usurious loans to credit card companies that make gazillions off the fine print. Then, for the coup de grace, hand over history's most successful public safety net to Wall Street.

Of course, the GOP and the White House use slightly different language for this corporate-lobbyist trifecta: "Tort reform," "eliminating abuse of bankruptcy" and "keeping Social Security solvent" are the preferred Beltway phrasings for messing with the little guy. ........

the best passages in the Bible - the Beatitudes and Matthew 25.

Apparently, the post-9/11 Jesus is more interested in fucking us than saving us.

That is, whoever wields the most of political influence with a MAJORITY of cash.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-scheer22feb22.story
ROBERT SCHEER
Of, by and for Big Business
Robert Scheer

February 22, 2005

<snip>Next on the corporate wish list is savaging Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief, which is offered to individuals who can't pay their debts. It allows them to give up nonessential assets in exchange for a fresh start. Chapter 7 has been a tool for family and societal stability for decades; torquing it in the favor of credit card companies has been a fantasy of the industry for almost as long. <snip>

Is "onerous" too strong? Hardly. It's way beyond onerous when a struggling parent puts back-to-school expenses on an "introductory rate" credit card and then sees the interest rate surge toward 30% when she's two days late with her payment. Now $500 in books and clothes are going to cost her thousands by the time she can afford to finish paying for them. Ironically, considering the number of senators and representatives who love to quote Scripture, such outrageous usury was explicitly condemned in the Old Testament as what it is, "extortion."

And while the story of Jesus in the temple is also being roundly ignored, so is that other once- sacred pillar of the Republican philosophy, states' rights. Nearly all states have reasonable limits on interest rates, which have been trumped by D.C. politicians in the thrall of corporate lobbies. Sure, business interests deserve some clout in a democracy, but this is ridiculous.

In fact, the GOP's legislative calendar looks like a wish list sent over to the White House from the Chamber of Commerce across the street. Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) dropped in there the other day after a breakfast meeting with the president to assure the chamber that its wishes would soon be law. After all, the chamber spent $168 million to push the anti-class-action lawsuit bill along. Still to come this session: raising allowable emissions standards on major pollutants, oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the granddaddy of all corporate payouts, privatization of Social Security.