Helping Hands that are Helping Themselves

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http://www.nationofchange.org/helping-hands-are-helping-themselves-1374030801

The word "help" is so uplifting, conveying our best humanitarian values. How odd, then, to see it used in this New York Times headline: "Banks' Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills."

I'll bet they did! We all know how altruistic, beneficent and kindhearted Wall Street lobbyists are — when it comes to helping themselves, that is. The article explains that a small army of high-dollar influence-peddlers are not merely asking our lawmakers to free big banks from pesky rules that limit their reckless greed, but instead the lobbyists are helping to write the laws themselves.

There's that word again. In this case, "helping to write" is a euphemism for "dictating" the language, turning the members of Congress into obedient stenographers.

For example, one key bill that zipped out of the House finance committee in May is essentially a do-it-yourself lawmaking product of Citigroup. In a concise 85 lines, it exempts big chunks of dangerously high-risk Wall Street speculation from any bothersome regulation. More than 70 of those 85 lines were penned by Citigroup lobbyists with "help" from other banks. The committee even copied two key paragraphs word for word from the language that Citigroup handed to the members.