Let's Make a Deal: Beltway Edition

If you ever needed proof that Washington is governed by the Golden Rule
-- the one that says, he who has the gold, rules -- you only have to
look at the wagonloads of cash being dumped by big business into
crushing President Obama's domestic agenda.

Good gosh, how the money rolls in -- and out. And I'm not only talking
about the millions bankrolling the gang war over health care reform. A
couple of weeks ago, The Washington Post reported that the energy lobby
is barnstorming around the country holding rallies and concerts, giving
away free lunches and tee-shirts, spreading the wealth like a drunken
oil tycoon -- all to defeat the cap-and-trade climate bill that
squeaked through the House and now awaits a vote by the Senate.

The paper noted that in the first half of the year oil and natural gas
groups spent $82.1 million lobbying Capitol Hill -- but that
environmental, health and clean-energy interests scraped together less
than a quarter of that amount, $18.7 million. Money talks, and it's
murmuring in your ear, "Global warming, what global warming?"0D

Those energy lobby high rollers in denial aren't the only ones who know
how to throw a party. Last month, Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy
group that was founded by Ralph Nader, released an investigation of the
ten banks receiving the most Federal bailout money and five trade
associations fighting government attempts to more closely regulate
consumer banking.

In the period between Election Day last November and the end of June,
the groups scheduled 70 fundraisers for members of Congress. Along the
way, they made $6 million dollars in federal campaign contributions.

Thirty-five of those 70 wingdings -- half! -- were thrown by the US
Chamber of Commerce and its lobbyists. And a third of the money
contributed to candidates came from the American Banking Association
and affiliated lobbyists. Both organizations are fighting hard to keep
the government from clamping down on the financial industry. In fact,
the Chamber of Commerce is planning on spending a hundred million bucks
to keep the noses of federal snoops out of their business.

It's not hard to figure out why they're so eager to grease palms and
throw the regulatory bloodhounds off the scent. On August 31, Bloomberg
News reported that Wall Street is getting ready for a major battle to
prevent tighter government control of the nearly $600 trillion dollar
over-the-counter derivatives market.

According to Bloomberg, "Five U.S. commercial banks,
including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank
of America Corp., are on track to earn more than $35 billion this year
trading unregulated derivatives contracts. At stake is how much of that
business they and other dealers will be able to keep."

Astonishing to think about when you recall that just about a year ago
irresponsible derivatives trading was one of the reasons we were being
sucked into the vortex of economic catastrophe. Equally astonishing to
see the extravagant salaries banking executives are still raking in
even while their foolish financial strategies made more and more of us
eligible for the breadlines.

Recently, the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank,
issued their annual executive compensation survey. This year's is
titled "America's Bailout Barons."

The institute took a look at paychecks for the top five executives at
20 financial companies - the ones that took the biggest helpings from
the taxpayer-funded bailout buffet. From 2006 through 2008, they
received an average of $32 million apiece -- compensation packages that
totaled $3.2 billion.

Just as a reality check, one hundred US workers making the annual
average wage would have to work for more than a thousand years to make
the money those hundred execs made in three.

Despite the financial crisis that nearly sank us a year ago, the front page of the September 12 New York Time
s reports that, "Backstopped by huge federal guarantees, the biggest
banks have restructured only around the edges. Employment in the
industry has fallen just 8 percent since last September. Only a handful
of big hedge funds have closed. Pay is already returning to precrash
levels, topped by the 30,000 employees of Goldman Sachs, who are on
track to earn an average of $700,000 this year. Nor are major pay cuts
likely, according to a report last week from J.P. Morgan Securities.
Executives at most big banks have kept their jobs."

If nothing is changed, MIT's Simon Johnson, former chief economist of
the International Monetary Fund, told the Times, the banks "will run up
big risks, they will fail again, they will hit us for a big check."

And look at this: while those executives are dancing with your dollars,
the foreclosures they helped to bring on continue to rise. According to
Moody's Economy.com, nearly 1.8 million American mortgage holders will
lose their homes this year -- up from 1.4 million in 2008. And the
Mortgage Bankers Association reports that the lion's share of those
foreclosures has shifted from the dreaded subprime mortgages that
triggered this crisis to prime loans. That means people who were
employed with sufficient income and security to take out a prime
mortgage are losing their jobs and houses, too.

This jump in foreclosures is spreading nationwide to parts of the country=2
0previously not as hard hit, such places as Illinois, Idaho and Utah.
In Oregon, where joblessness jumped to nearly 12 percent in July,
foreclosures have skyrocketed 84 percent from a year ago.

So far, government programs intended to ease the hurt have had little
effect. The Associated Press reported a month ago that despite a $50
billion mortgage bailout from Washington, only nine percent of the
borrowers eligible for relief have seen their home loans modified.

Many of the banks involved have been dragging their feet, enjoying the
bailout bucks but failing to spread them around. Some haven't modified
a single mortgage.

No wonder Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chair of the House
Financial Services Committee, and Democratic Senate Whip Dick Durbin of
Illinois are reviving the reform proposal that would allow bankruptcy
judges to "cramdown" mortgage principal and interest rates to give
homeowners some much-needed relief. Durbin said, "Waiting for banks to
'volunteer' to end this foreclosure crisis is a waste of time... This
approach has failed miserably."

Of course, you remember what happened the last time they tried to push
"cramdown" through. Last spring, it was rejected by the Senate, 51-45.
In anticipation of that vote, an exasperated Durbin told an Illinois
radio station that, "The banks... are still the most powerful lobby on
Capitol Hill, and they frankly own the place."

Like what they'
ve done with it?