Nation Topics - Corporate Lobbying | The Nation

Revelations about American Legislative Exchange Council project to link corporate interests with state legislators to impose an agenda that protects polluters, privatizes public education, breaks unions and undermines democracy raises questions about whether group is “evading lobbying disclosure laws,” violating tax breaks designed to encourage charitable contributions and doing “an end-run around state ethics laws.”

Some musical selections, and on News Corp.'s donation to the Republicans.

As someone who has written several books and dozens of major articles on judicial interventions in our politics, and who has covered literally hundreds of campaigns in every state of the country, I have made no secret about my sense that the best response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to let corporations spend freely on campaigns is a constitutional amendment to protect our democracy from being overwhelmed with corporate cash.

The 2009 stimulus bill that was supposed to spur job creation at a sufficient rate to prevent double-digit unemployment might have done so if it had been approved at the level and with the focus intended by the serious players in the U.S. House who initially crafted a real response to the recession.