Catastrophe - Dick Morris [115]
But in 1993, a series of scandals led to a crackdown by the Securities and Exchange Commission (back then, it still had teeth). The SEC entered into agreements with the underwriting firms barring campaign contributions to candidates running for offices in which they would have the power to select underwriters. The SEC then codified the agreement into Rule G-37, which barred all underwriters and their employees from conducting bond business in states where they had made campaign contributions in the preceding two years. And, if they made such contributions, they couldn’t underwrite bond issues in that state for two more years.
The flood of contributions and the resultant corruption immediately dried up. A study showed that “the use of negotiated bonds dropped suddenly following the banning of campaign contributions.”433 Reviewing the impact of the new rule, the study estimated that “about one-third of municipal bond issuers [had] acted corruptly” under the old negotiated system and had switched from competitive bidding “to a negotiated [bond] issue in order to gain the opportunity to realize a private gain in the form of campaign contributions.”434 The study’s “rough estimate” was that state and local taxpayers saved $500 million in “real interest costs” in the year after the reform was enacted by curtailing the corruption.435
A private, nonpartisan civic watchdog group, Americans for Limited Government (www.getliberty.org) makes a dramatic proposal: it wants to apply the same rules to no-bid public contracts. If you get a contract from a state or local government without public bid, you can’t donate to any political campaign in that state for two years. And if you have already contributed, you can’t get a no-bid contract for the next two years!
Makes sense, doesn’t it? In one stroke, all of the problems we’ve been discussing in this chapter would go away. Nobody would pay to play!
ALG reports that “an ever growing number of states and municipalities are enacting ‘Pay To Play’ laws that bar or severely limit campaign contributions by state and local contractors, their top executives, and, in some instances, the executives’ spouses and dependents.”436
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GETTING CLEAN: STATES THAT BAR PAY-TO-PLAY
New Jersey: For once the leader in ethics reform, bars contractors—whether no-bid or competitively bid—from contributing more than $300 to any candidate for governor or to any state or local party committees.
Connecticut: Where the state treasurer went to jail over a contributor/bond issue scandal; bans donations to state or local candidates from firms or their principals who have more than $50,000 in state contracts.
Hawaii: No donations from any contractor to any candidate.
South Carolina: No donations from any no-bid contractor.
West Virginia: No donations from any contractor to any candidate. You can’t even bid on a contract if you have given money.
Vermont: Bans donations from contractors to the state treasurer.
Ohio: No donations from firms having contracts of more than $10,000.
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Keep an eye out for pay-to-play bids in your own state and yell when you see them. Loudly—and to the media. This has to stop.
To keep abreast of developments in your state, go to the ALG Web site, www.getliberty.org. Get involved—help ALG turn off this corruption!
13
SLOW SURRENDER
How Our Banks and Investment Firms Are Opening the Door to Shariah Law and Muslim Extremist Domination
There is a worldwide, religiously powered movement to undermine and conquer our Western and American way of life. One of the key tools of this movement is Shariah-compliant financing. It is a practice, orchestrated by Muslim extremists, that is designed to use the oil-generated wealth and economic clout of key Islamic nations to hijack our institutions, our social policies, and, ultimately, our values in the name of Islamic rule.
If this movement continues