Tom Donohue is the 74 year old president and CEO of the United States Chamber of Commerce, a position he has held since 1997. Thanks to his efforts the Chamber has been able to spend $136 Million dollars on lobbying Congress for laws favorable to big business. Of course, he enjoys the perks of his position. He travels around Washington DC in a chauffeured limousine and flies around the globe in a private jet. With a pay check of $5 million dollars ($4.9 million in 2011) he is the second highest paid trade association leader in Washington DC. Donohue says the Chamber needs $5 Million dollars a month to operate and it is a $250 Million dollar a year operation. It includes 500 employees and a small army of political lobbyists
He is responsible for plunging the Chamber into politics. In 2012 he led the unsuccessful effort by the Chamber, through spending of millions of dollars, trying to elect Republicans to Congress. The Chamber claims that as a national organization it is made up of some 3 million businesssess. In fact,it's financing is from a small handful of large multinational corporations whose selfish businesss interests it represents. One website has pointed out:
“Although the Chamber has misrepresented itself and claimed to represent 3 million businesses (later modified to 300,000 after a Mother Jones exposé), in reality it actually represents a small group of multinational corporations. In 2008, half of its donations came from just 45 corporate donors. In 2009, nearly half of the Chamber’s money came from a single donation from the health insurance industry trade association. Moreover, the Chamber doesn’t appear to truly care about jobs or small businesses — evidenced by the fact that the Chamber killed legislation to create millions of new clean energy jobs and expand America’s competitive advantage in clean energy technology.”http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2010/11/23/131597/uschamber-obama/
There is a website "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't speak for me" http://chamber.350.org/ that has pointed out:
"Yesterday, The Hill reported that the US Chamber of Commerce is teaming up with the American Petroleum Institute to run a “grassroots” project to combat “misinformation” about the Keystone XL pipeline. Putting API, Big Oil’s front group aside, the US Chamber of Commerce has its own misinformation problems. Let’s review the numbers:
The Chamber leads all organizations in the amount they spend on political ads but have been able to keep their actual donors secret thanks to our Supreme Court and our laws. In fact, the Chamber spent some $33 Million during the 2010 mid term elections on Republican candidates while insistingitis a "non-partisan advocate for small businesses.
While maintaining it is the representive of many thousands of small businessess, the New York Times reported in October 2010 that half of the Chamber's $140 million in contributions in 2008 came from just 45 big-money donors, many of whom enlisted the Chamber's help to fight political and public opinion battles on their behalf (such as opposing financial or healthcare reforms, or other regulations). According to sourcewatch,http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SourceWatch,the Chamber is "dominated by oil companies, pharmaceutical giants, automakers and other polluting industries."
Needless to say Donohue is the leader of all the corporate giants in attacking plaintiff trial lawyers who sue these corporations and expose their wrong doing. Using millions from it's secret corporate donors the Chamber runs ads attacking the jury system and trial lawyers. But, more recently they have also spent their millions on trying to elect judges who favor business and corporate interests. For example, companies like Wal-MartStores Inc, Home Depot Inc and other huge corporations have donated $1 Million each in targeting judicial elections. Over $5 million dollars was spent by the Chamber in Michigan, Midsissippi,Ohio, Indiana and Alabama to try to influence the election of judges donated by corporations.
Under Donohue, the Chamber has become a Republican front for a small group of large corporations whose goal is the elimination of our trial by jury justice system and the election of "business favoring" judges along with Republican legislators.
I have often expressed my objection and concern about the involvement of religion in our political American system. I have been vocal about my objection to the American bishops attempt to dictate political outcomes in America by religious influence and intimidation. I have suggested that those bishops and other Christian religions who fail to observe separation of church and state should have their tax exemption removed. See for example, http://www.paulluvera.com/weblog/2012/10/more-un-christ-like-bishops.html.html
Columnist Leonard Pitts has expressed his viewpoint on this general subject in an article where he wrote the following:
"Organized religion, Christianity in particular, is on the decline, and it has no one to blame but itself; it traded moral authority for political power. To put it another way: the Christian Bible contains numerous exhortations to serve those who are wretched and poor, to anger slowly and forgive promptly, to walk through this life in humility and faith. The word "Republican" does not appear in the book.Not once.
Yet somehow in the last 30 years, people of faith were hustled and hoodwinked into regarding the GOP platform as a lost gospel. Somehow low taxes for the wealthy and the deregulation of industry became the very message of Christ. Somehow, hostility to science, gays, Muslims and immigrants became the very meaning of faith, and somehow Christianity became – or at least, came to seem – a wholly owned subsidy of the Republican Party."
To brother Pitts I say "Amen"!
An update about my medical situation for my friends. I had knee replacement surgery in June of this year to replace a previously implanted knee joint that wore out. Unfortunately, it became infected and in July had to be removed with an antibiotic rod inserted. I then went through antibiotic therapy until October 6th of this year when another surgery to determine if the knee joint could be inserted was performed. However, there was still infection so another antibiotic rod was inserted and I am back on antibiotic therapy until a 4th surgery can be done to finally insert a knee joint. But, don't feel sorry for me. Feel sorry for my poor wife Lita who has assumed the role of around the clock nurse over these past four months. I can't bend the leg and only get around by walker or wheel chair. She has to help me with my pills (lots of them) meals., drive me to doctors and more. Without her I would have had to go to a nursing home so I am more than grateful for her loving care.
The bird? Well, you get all the news here. Yesterday the door blew open at our house in Arizona, where we are staying for medical care, and a pigeon got in. The ceilings in this house are forty feet high in the living room with small windows at the top. Of course, the bird headed right for these windows and kept trying to fly through them. We called the security gate who sent a man out. There was no way to reach the bird, but he constructed a net on a long pole and finally got the bird to come down. Once the bird saw the open door he left us.
Given our life as a replay of the movie Ground Hog Day this was the most exciting that has happened in our lives in weeks. Stay tuned for more exciting news from Arizona.
I've complained many times about golden parachutes and obscene amounts paid to CEO's of corporations when, under their leadership, they have run the corporation into the ground. See for example http://www.paulluvera.com/weblog/2007/02/eddie_bauer_pay.html. Now we see Alan Fischman of Washington Mutual jumping the sinking ship with $19 Million. This is a man who has been on the job all of an entire three weeks. He signed on with a $7.5 signing bonus and got a $16.6 million severance payment. Not bad pay for a temporary employee.
Not only that, former CEO Kedrry Killinger was paid some $54 Million for his mismanagement over five years and I understand is eligible for about a $20 million severance payment.
So want about the WaMu shareholders? Oh, their stock is worthless.
A recent news article by Forbes.com alerted me to the financial crime of bad CEO’s walking away with piles of undeserved money. I’ve complained about this many times, but the pattern never changes. Boards of corporations don’t protect the shareholders from this kind of dollar wasting.
Charles Prince CEO of Citigroup announced he was leaving the post. Of course, there is a trail of dirty laundry he leaves behind. Namely an $8 to $11 Billion write down in subprime mortgage problems. So what do you suppose a CEO who leaves this kind of trouble behind should be paid as he exits? He’ll be leaving with a pension and stock benefits worth $29.5 million. Not only that, he’s entitled to a year end bonus of some $12 million and an office, a car and a driver for five years.
Then there is Stanley O’Neal who left Merrill Lynch under a big dark cloud. He walks out with $160 million dollars including some $30 million in retirement and $129 in stock options.
Stephen Hilbert of Conseco left with some $72 million even though the corporate stock fell from $57 a share to $5 a share while he was in charge and the company ended up broke. I guess it’s OK to reward incompetence.
The man who gets the prize, however, is Robert Nardelli, whom I’ve complained about before. His Home Depot payment was $210 million who was tossed out in January of this year.
Richard Grasso formerly in charge of the New York Stock exchange walked with $140 million. But, that time there was a rebellion and lawsuits have been filled over that compensation package.
How does that look to the guy with the lunch pail trying to feed his family? And, where is the anguished outcry from the stockholders. Why aren’t members of the boards thrown out for allowing this kind of financial insanity?
The Seattle PI reports that the new CEO of the Eddie Bauer Company will be paid over $3 Million dollars for his three year contract even though it is a financially failing company. I previously commented on the company’s payment of a golden parachute of $8.4 million to it’s departing CEO. (2/7/2007). This was an overpayment by a company that was fighting going under to a departing CEO even though his job performance was below expectations and the company was bleeding money. Now the company has agreed to pay the new CEO, Neil Fiske, millions. In fact his annual salary is even more then the last CEO. Not only that, but Fiske is guaranteed a $600,000 bonus for this year and already been paid a $600,000 signing bonus. Added to that is the fact he was given stock benefits and options over salary. And who pays for negotiating this sweet heart deal? Why, Eddie Bauer of course. They are paying Fiske's lawyers for negotiating this deal costing the company millions. Go figure! All of this from a company, the PI reports, that had only one profitable quarter since coming out of bankruptcy in 2005. It doesn’t look like the board of directors are doing a very good job of protecting the shareholders to whom they owe a fiduciary duty.
As I’ve said before, unrestricted capitalism is nothing more then raw greed. Left to their own devices corporations act like pirates and would devour all in their drive for profit without regard to the welfare of society, ethics or moral considerations. While a growing number of Americans fall into poverty, the rich and the powerful continue to pocket more and more money. Corporate America needs curbs, restraints and regulation. Overpayment of corporate CEO’s is a good place to start.
The Associated Press reports another corporate CEO gross overpayment, a subject I´ve complained about so many times in the past. In a filing with the federal government, Ford disclosed it paid its CEO Alan Mulally a staggering $39.1 million dollars during the first four months of his term as CEO. So, what did Mr. Mulally do to earn this windfall? Ford, as the second biggest automaker, lost $12.7 Billion, yes,"billion" in 2006 so it couldn´t be his job performance in putting the company back on its feet. When a company bleeding $12 Billion pays its CEO some $40 Million dollars for four months worth of work one wonders what insanity has attached itself to the Boards of these corporations and when will the taxpayers yell "I´m mad as hell and I`m not going to take it anymore"?
I’ve previously reported on the connection between Vice President Dick Cheney and the Texas based Halliburton Company: Vice President Richard Cheney - Unrestrained Arrogance 1/31/07. They are joined at the hip with the result taxpayers have been robbed by this corporate giant. It is a classic "military industrial complex" illustration of what is wrong with unregulated revolving door relationships between big business and government. Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton whose world wide business activities involve a number of subsidiaries. Its business connection to this administration activities has involved billions of taxpayer dollars. Cheney served as CEO from 1995 to 2000. After leaving the company and while serving as Vice President he is still being paid some one million dollars a year in deferred compensation. Under CEO Cheney the company did some $73 million in sales with Saddam & Iraq. Not only that, under CEO Cheney the number of Halliburton subsidiaries doing business out of off shore tax havens increased from nine to forty four resulting in Halliburton going from a $300 million dollar tax payment to a $85 million dollar tax refund.
As Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush’s father, he saw that Halliburton had favorable treatment in taxpayer paid contracts. Then after he left government, he became CEO and the company suddenly went from 73rd to 18th on the Pentagon’s list of favored contractors. It became involved in some $3.8 Billion dollars in taxpayer paid government dealings. After being elected Vice President the company continued to be favored in government contracts without concern to conflicts of interest from the revolving door roles of Mr. Cheney as CEO and then Vice President.
The company has had a history of overcharging the government without losing it’s ability to continue to do government work. The SEC has been investigating whether the company artificially inflated revenue by $234 million dollars over four years of government work. In 2005 Halliburton was accused of a one billion dollar overcharge involving its contracts in Iraq. A whistle blower said in a Congressional committee hearing that "I can unequivocally state the abuse related to contracts awarded...represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career." The Associated Press now reports that $10 billion dollars has been squandered by the U.S. Government in Iraq reconstruction because of fraud and overcharging. Of this amount $2.7 billion involved Halliburton. But, there is still another $300 billion in contracts which government auditors have yet to review involving Iraq contracts. Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA) said "It’s no wonder that taxpayers all across the country are fed up and demanding that we bring real oversight to the ‘anything goes’ world of Iraq reconstruction." This administration and the Republican Congress have allowed an "anything goes" relationship with big business to continue in spite of the spiraling costs of Iraq, an increasing federal debt and a free hand for corporate giants to do what they want. It's no coincidence that Halliburton has been so favored by government contracts without auditor oversight while Mr. Cheney serves as Vice President. It’s time for Congress to put a stop to this abuse.
One of my pet peeves is the frequent occurrence of paying offensive amounts of money to outgoing CEO’s at the expense of shareholders and prices paid by their customers. (Overpaid CEO’s & Tort Reform 1/26/07) Now we have another example here in Seattle which I’ve written about before - Another Golden Parachute for a CEO 1/3/07. Fabian Mansson was recruited by Eddie Bauer’s parent company, Spiegel Group in 2002 to save Eddie Bauer from financial distress. A year later Spiegel filed for bankruptcy and under Mansson’s leadership Eddie Bauer continued to worsen financially.
Paid almost a million dollars a year, under his management the company is in financial chaos, but he is scheduled to walk away with a $10 million dollar golden parachute even though the company under his "leadership" lost $275 million just this year and has gone down in value by one third in that year. Shareholders have experienced a 66% loss of value of their stock in the company since June of 2005. Not only that, this kind of insane rewarding of failure has become commonplace. For example, Pfizer Inc CEO Henry McKinnell was ousted, but is scheduled to be paid $200 million as a golden parachute while Helett-Packard Companies CEO Carly Fiorina, also fired, will be paid $21 million dollars. In the meantime, store employees fight for a decent wage and the shareholders end up paying the freight. There's something very wrong with this, but big business is given a free hand under this administration.