Conservative Republican Legislators belonging to state and federal Assemblies have made arguments against the imposition of laws, initiatives and rules placed upon individual states by the Federal Government. They insist states should be free from federal or other influences, to make decisions about how their government works and the laws their citizens are governed by.
They make this argument over and over again and right now are involved in expensive and lengthy litigation to preserve "state rights" against interference in laws such as SB 1070 legislation in AZ. and in many other states. They have also initiated litigation against the Healthcare Reform Act, led by ultra conservative Florida.
While many may applaud these efforts of reducing influence upon state laws and regulations, others realize that without some oversight by federal authorities some states would infringe upon basic citizen's rights. We see an example of that today in the right to work, collective bargaining attacks and union busting efforts and initiatives in several states; Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Maine, Florida, Michigan and an assortment of others.
All of these labor issues are not the only initiatives being presented within the states. There are also the education issues- slashing education funding and replacing public school appropriations with "vouchers". There are also privatization efforts ongoing; schools, prisons, prison services, Medicaid - and of course, Medicare.
Republicans continue to insist that all of the foregoing programs and services should be left to each state and their citizens to determine if they want them and how they are to be operated, funded and controlled. In other words, they are saying to the federal government, "Butt out! You have no right to influence or interfere in state activities and laws we choose to enact." Many among the public share this belief and sentiment, having been subjected to the continuous arguments presented by the lawmakers, Governors and local media. Other citizens sit perched upon a fence, wringing their hands as they try and decide if states should be left entirely to their own devices without outside interference and influence.
This entire argument - about a state's right of sovereignty - presented by Conservatives and far right leaning constituents is entirely problematic. Not just for those pushing this agenda, but also for those listening to their arguments. In addition within these arguments is a double standard that goes without notice or realization. If recognized and included in the dialog it would seriously weaken the argument presented by these Conservative groups.
The problem is: while they argue against interference from the federal government, they argue for interference in state issues from a private non-profit 501(C)(3) IRS exempt corporation - the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). For more than 30 years now ALEC has been interfering at the state level of local government(s) through proposing, writing and lobbying for legislation earmarked to become laws at the state level. These laws are not proposed by constituents of state lawmakers and in most cases the public is totally unaware of the legislation or the impact it will have upon them if passed. No these legislative efforts are driven by the corporate membership of ALEC and are/were beneficial to them as opposed to any benefit provided to or enjoyed by the general public.
ALEC claims they are not lobbyists, rather a "Legislative Training" organization. This "training" provided to state legislators winds up being how to write legislation beneficial to corporations and the best way to promote that legislation so that it in fact becomes law. At their site ALEC proudly claims thousands of proposed bills have been written by them and introduced to states and approximately 20% of those become law:
"To date, ALEC's Task Forces have considered, written and approved hundreds of model bills on a wide range of issues, model legislation that will frame the debate today and far into the future. Each year, close to 1,000 bills, based at least in part on ALEC Model Legislation, are introduced in the states. Of these, an average of 20 percent become law."
Here is an example of ALEC's "Training":
I have to wonder how many of us are aware that up to 20% of the laws that govern our day to day lives were in fact first suggested, then written by corporate attorneys and their lobbyists, carried back to our states by state Legislators belonging to ALEC, and passed into law? Important laws - not just small legislative efforts - abortion, prison privatization, prison industries, corporate tax laws, telecommunication regulations and taxation, insurance rates and regulations, Rent Control, Tenant Management, Regulatory laws, Consumer Protection laws and regulations, Minimum wage laws and hundreds more. Here are but a few of ALEC's "Resolutions" found under their Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force:
Opposing Any Increase in the Starting Wage
Resolution on Occupational Licensing
Opposing Comparable Worth Legislation
Resolution opposing increases in minimum wage linked to the CPI
Opposing Employer-Paid Health Care Mandates
Urging Congress to Pass Legislation Requiring Expedited Waiver Procedures to States
Opposing Ergonomic Regulations Based on Unsound Science
Resolution Opposing Federal Mandates on Unemployment Insurance
Opposing Federal Regulation to Extend Unemployment Insurance Benefits to New Parents
Resolution on Criminal-Background Checks
Opposing OSHA’s Proposed Ergonomics Plan
With all of the laws proposed by ALEC's corporate membership that have become law in your state and mine, those who devised such laws and pushed for passage, want to limit any oversight by the Feds to insure the laws stay in place and benefit the likes of Koch Industries, Boeing, AT&T, GlaxoSmithKline, PhaRMA, Johnson and Johnson and hundreds of others. So it is apparent that while not wanting the federal government to dictate to the states, ALEC and their members want to allow the likes of Koch Industries and Exxon, Wal-Mart and other corporations to dictate to us what laws we should live and be governed by.
As a "Training" organization I wonder where their lobbying, testifying before state and federal committees and the filing of Amicus Curiae briefs on behalf of Florida and other states suing over the healthcare legislation fits in with their claim of legislative training?
How does training figure in to the legislation now ongoing in Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Florida, California and elsewhere to privatize more prisons and other services? Voter ID legislation? Right to Work Legislation in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Florida? If it's all about training - as they claim - why is it that their Alumni - Governors Walker, Kasich and LePage are all pushing the same ALEC legislation in their states right now? I mean are these Governors all trying to further "train" state legislators by asking them to pass ALEC legislation? Why is it that all this "training" is about Conservative ideology and pursuits - and fails to provide training pertaining to similar "Democratic" initiatives? I mean they do claim to be "Bi-Partisan", don't they...so why is it all Right leaning and how are the able to continually get away with teaching Conservative philosophy and initiatives, without losing their 5o1 (c)(3) exempt status?
As I've said now for more than a year and a half - it is not about training...it is about power, influence and control wielded by Conservative state legislators on behalf of ALEC's corporate membership. These companies and their owners are considered the "elite" mentioned in Heubeck's 2000 Treatise.
Another organization affiliated with ALEC is the Council For National Policy (CFNP or CNP). It also hides behind a 501(c)(3) exemption as a non-profit "training" organization. This CNP has a membership that mainly mirrors ALEC - same corporations, individuals and Conservative politicians. A look at their membership reads like a Who's-Who of the Evangelical Religious Right and Conservatives in the U.S. Supporters include the Heritage Foundation (Kochs) and all of their other organizations, Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff, Dick Armey and hundreds of others. Take a look at this list of members and note the number of state and federal Judges listed as members. Here is a letter written to President Reagan on behalf of the CNP in 1984 about"Privatization". If you have followed my diaries you will know that in 1984 CCA secured their first private prison contract in Tennessee. Many remember that under Reagan, privatization exploded, and this letter may provide us with an understanding as to why:
Willard W. Garvey
300 West Douglas
Wichita, Kansas 07909
6 April 1984
President Ronald Reagan
Executive Office of the President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington , D.C. 20500 Re: Privatization
President Reagan, congratulations on rejecting the political system negatives. Now why not adopt the all positive system -- privatization? Hold a White House conference on Privatization and appoint a Presidential Task Force on privatization.
Privatization is documented in the enclosed paper from the Heritage Foundation and dates back at least to Adam Smith, Plato, Aristotle and Jesus.
Privatization's more recent advocates include most of the non-profit sector-- and the entire profit sector. To name a few, Peter Drucker, Milton Friedman, Heritage Foundation, Reason Foundation, Pacific Institute, Manhattan Institute, National Legal Center for the Public Interest, VOLUNTEER -- National Center for Citizen Involvement, International Executive Service Corps, United Way with its Services Identification System, churches, labor unions, etc.
Privatization is now "an idea whose time has come" The knowledge, communication, and computer industry can make political representatives obsolete!
Privatization might well be the theme for the 200th anniversary of the Constitution. Privatization is essential for national salvation.
To restore privatization is the National Center for Privatization's purpose. May we help you?
With best wishes,
Willard W. Garvey
WWG:ks
Encl: Heritage Foundation paper
National Center for Privatization brochure
Did you notice all of the Koch funded or founded organizations included in the letter as supporting privatization? How about their claim that privatization is supported by labor unions? I don't believe labor unions have ever been supportive of privatization efforts, knowing the impact it would have upon their members and their jobs. Want to learn more about the CNP - start here:
The common denominator of both ALEC and CNP is Paul Weyrich. After establishing ALEC in September 1973, Weyrich went on to help form such organizations as the Council for National Policy, Coalitions for America, the International Policy Forum, the National Council for Democracy, the Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation. At this link many of the organizations, individuals, companies and lawmakers involved with Weyrich, ALEC and CNP are identified. Prominent among both groups is the Coors family and their foundations.
While ALEC likes to inform that their "efforts" are dedicated to the operation(s) within individual states, their sister-organization (CNP) is dedicated to the same legislative and religion-based issues at the National level. So many of the same players, organizations, individuals and politicians holding a membership in both CNP and ALEC attempt to impact legislation and initiatives at both the state and national levels.
Included in the CNP membership I was dismayed to find the name of Jack Eckerd, the drugstore magnate and philanthropist. I was dismayed due to knowing that in 1981 Eckerd founded Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE). He approached Florida Governor Lawton Chiles and convinced Chiles to allow him to use PRIDE to run all of Florida's prison industries. In this effort, Eckerd became the founding-father of privatizing prison industries in the U.S. From 1981 when privatized prison industries first began, it has grown by leaps and bounds to the point that today 43 individual states and several County jails are involved in operating for-profit industries as non-profits, by partnerships between private corporations and those industries participating in the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) I so often write about.
I had no idea that Eckerd belonged to the CNP and was in fact a Board Member of the Heritage Foundation. I actually thought he was doing something he believed would benefit prisoners and help reduce recidivism...I was actually taken in by his pursuit of this program thought to be beneficial to state prisoners. In fact, his actions opened the door to profits through cheap labor sought by others also affiliated with ALEC and CNP.
CONCLUSION
All of the terrible laws being pushed by these people throughout the U.S. in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida, Maine, Texas and other states with a Republican majority in their assemblies - are being pushed by ALEC and CNP alumni, disciples or wanna-be's: (Boehner, Cantor, Gingrich, LePage, Kasich, Walker). Their pursuits are being funded by the Koch brothers and their dozens of PAC's and think tanks, Coor's Foundation and family members and those such as the DeVos family foundations. It is a concerted effort of stealing our governments from us and supplanting that governing with rules, regulations and laws written by and beneficial to these organizations and their corporate members.
Many of their efforts should be recognized for what they are and the impact it is/will have upon us: voter ID legislation (make it harder for Dem students and those without birth certificates to vote in elections and force those individuals wishing to register to vote to pay for securing the necessary documents to secure photo ID's), prison privatization (shift tax dollars from government operations to the likes of CCA and Geo Group who have no desire to lessen recidivism), Union-Busting (eliminate the voice of collective workers), ending collective-bargaining (reduce wages paid to U.S. workers by corporations and companies - in addition to pursuits of eliminating minimum wages in some states), Emergency Management initiatives (take over municipal, county or city government by individuals chosen by the state Governor, to run those governments in place of the elected officials), Resolution in Opposition to a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (eliminating consumer protections against defective products, medical treatments and other consumer good issues), privatizing education (voucher legislation to reduce funding to public schools and universities) and of course, repealing Healthcare Initiatives and Laws enacted by Congress in 2010 and the elimination of Medicare (pass along the costs of Medicare to the elderly and retired through another voucher initiative and eliminate the mandate to purchase health insurance called for by President Obama's plan).
We should all become aware of the various influential politicians and even Presidents who have - or are - affiliated with both ALEC and CNP. If we are to succeed in fully outing ALEC and the likes of CNP, then it is imperative we know the faces of those affiliated with both.
President Reagan was a recipient of ALEC's "Jeffersonian" award and spoke to ALEC after leaving office:
George W. Bush presented speeches to both in the run-up to the 2004 and 2008 election cycles. President H.W. Bush made at least one speech from an ALEC forum during the first Gulf War.
Boehner, has appeared, spoken and received awards from ALEC and mentions them every chance he gets:
As has Republican House Majority leader, Eric Cantor:
2012 Conservative Presidential hopefuls, Gingrich (ALEC Alumni)
and Herman Cain (ALEC backed candidate) are hoping for a spot as the Republican Presidential Candidate in the upcoming election.
Pete Coors (Castlerock Foundation and Coors Brewing) spoke at the 2009 ALEC annual meeting:
Recently former Alaska Governor spoke on Glenn Beck about Healthcare Reform and education issues. During the interview they used a national map prepared by ALEC showing legislative efforts in each state:
In 2009 ALEC member, Arizona Representative Nancy Barto, was interviewed on FOX News about the Healthcare legislation and her opposition to it:
The foregoing are merely a partial showing of the face of ALEC and the CNP. All are aligned with one another to pursue a Conservative agenda to usurp government control and turn it over to corporations, businesses, companies and owners of those entities. These efforts I have labeled as "Corporatocracy" meaning corporations wish to run the U.S. government through state control. To accomplish this the same players work secretly within ALEC and even more secretly through the CNP. While we can get a partial listing of ALEC members from the organizations website, current member information from CNP is not available. Since about 2002 they have refused to publish the names of their members, affiliates or the initiatives they support and push. For that reason alone, they may be even more dangerous to us than ALEC.
The Expose Alec DK Group is attempting to make public all facets of ALEC's membership, Model Legislation documents used as cut and paste state legislation by their public lawmaker members. We simply have to identify and expose all of the legislative members of ALEC if we are to shame them into quitting their association with ALEC. In the alternative, every piece of ALEC legislation that is presented within the individual state assemblies needs to be identified and called out as boilerplate legislation prepared and approved by corporations through ALEC. We have to urge our non-ALEC state lawmakers to join us and challenge each piece of known ALEC legislation as soon as it is presented. They have to make the fact that it is cut and paste legislation prepared by ALEC and their corporate masters, a part of the legislative record. If this is done, there will be no place for ALEC and CNP members to hide and make it difficult to get sponsorship for such legislative initiatives.
In addition we have to expand our ALEC research and efforts of exposing them to include the Council For National Policy. With similar agendas, members, initiatives and Conservative ideals, they also have to be fully investigated. If this is the other "arm" of ALEC's public and private members and influences, they have to be as effectively identified and called out as we are doing with ALEC. If eliminating ALEC's influences and activities is a goal, we can't leave them another place to hide and continue their nefarious activities....just sayin'.