Business Groups Invested in Races, Now Wait for Returns

[papau]

Seems business thinks that the $1.2 billion donated in 2000 and again in 2004, plus the soft money via trade associations/Washington lobbyists running GOTV in 2004 battleground states, meaning "businesses urged their employees to vote...", means the GOP owes the rich and corporate even more - beyond the first term tax cuts, loosened rules on clean-air standards and workplace safety, and Medicare reforms emphasizing private sector solutions - from the public treasury - be it more public land, lower air quality, or just plain money- perhaps disguised as tort "reform", social security "reform", and tax "reform". So I do not expect Medicare to bargain for lower drug prices in the near future, and I expect pensions and health care will be pay it yourself if you can via private investment accounts with their fees and disaster prone health savings account strcture and pension investment risk transfer. I hope mercury and other pollutants taste good and do not destroy too much life, as I look forward to oil and gas drilling on once-protected land on Colorado's Roan Plateau, New Mexico's Otera Mesa, and ANWR.

sigh....

:-(

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-invest8nov08,0,5478723.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Business Groups Invested in Races, Now Wait for Returns
After a hefty push for Republican candidates, industry organizations form their wish lists.
By Tom Hamburger Times Staff Writer

November 8, 2004

WASHINGTON — Lobbyists for the nation's leading business groups have been toasting the success of what they describe as an unprecedented effort this year to help elect President Bush and Republican congressional candidates. Now they plan to collect on that investment.<snip>

The list, according to interviews with lobbyists and trade associations, includes making tax cuts for capital gains and dividends permanent, limiting liability lawsuits, changing bankruptcy laws and opening previously restricted land in Alaska and elsewhere for energy exploration.

Business groups also count on more narrow shifts, such as changing health insurance rules in a way that benefits some of the GOP's most ardent allies, easing corporate government reform measures at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and making specific adjustments to the tax code.<snip>

In short order, the coalition raised half a million dollars for Thune from corporate contacts. By election day, it had funneled 200 volunteer lobbyists and lawyers from Washington to South Dakota, matching the labor organizers and Democratic lobbyists supporting Daschle. Similar business teams were organized to support the successful GOP Senate candidates in South Carolina and North Carolina.<snip>