Our
View: Corporations don't count
Schwarzenegger
was our vanguard against special interest.
He was going to protect us from those public
employee trade unions and tribal councils.
He was going to return the car tax and take
away those licenses. If he's so free from
those pesky special interest groups, how
come his campaign and his ballot efforts
are being funded by huge corporations, developers
and insurance agencies.
For
Arnold's campaign, he raised $19 million
by a week before the election. He borrowed
$4 million at a 4 percent interest rate
and gave himself $5 million. And although
his spokesperson claims to be free from
the dirty stains that are special interest
groups, the rest of that money had to come
from somewhere.
And
in fact, it did. He received $1.25 million
from land developers and realtors. Of that,
$300,000 came from one source, despite campaign
contribution limits. Developer Alex Spanos,
his company and his family donated the huge
sum which is far in excess of the $21,200
campaign finance limit. But those little
loopholes can be such pains.
Even
more important is Arnold's campaign against
those worker's compensation bandits who
are driving businesses to other states.
So where does the blame lies for the high
cost of worker's compensation. The businesses?
The workers? The doctors, lawyers and judges?
Or
are the insurance companies to blame? The
people who have a hand in the cookie jar
and who have been linked before to bribing
insurance commissioners into increasing
rates to increase their profits? Say it
isn't so.
Well,
between the bankers, investment capitalists
and insurance companies they contributed
$1.2 million to Arnold's campaign. It must
be really hard to recommend action to cut
back on insurance rates when a number of
the people you have to deal with are lining
the pockets of your campaign. And now American
International Group, more commonly known
as AIG, is contributing $100,000 to the
ballot measure committee that would try
to get worker's compensation reforms passed.
Who is going to take the brunt of the reform
then? Certainly not AIG, not after writing
that kind of check.
We'll
see who is sweeping up who when it comes
to taking care of business, hopefully Arnold
pulls his head out of the honey pot and
gets back to the spirit of his campaign
trail.
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