Dan Rather Reports, "The Best Congress Money Can Buy" Full Episode

tonight who's in charge here in Washington is it the lawmakers or the lobbyists my job is to go in and convince the committee it's not worth looking at it's not a good idea there are so many other things you should be doing before you get to that that's what you tell the congressman the Lord hears that there's a new party in power now and the lobbyists that means it's time to make new friends party hard if folks want to see what really goes on in Washington they should skip the Capitol come over here of this building this is where the action is good evening I'm here in our nation's capital just weeks after a political earthquake of change cracked across our country when the votes were tallied Americans had elected more than 60 new national lawmakers and had the Democrats control of Congress for the first time in more than a decade the war in Iraq was the overriding issue but for many of you it was more including the general tone and substance of Washington's leadership and Washington's overall political culture a big-money influence peddling and corruption the biggest name from the last Congress wasn't a lawmaker but a high-flying lobbyists named Jack Abramoff who had deep connections at the White House as well as in Congress after months of investigation only Abramoff knows how deep the scandal goes among those who will talk to us tonight taking us inside Washington's Chateau government is an insider a highly paid lobbyist by reputation of clean one who tells me how he and others of his kind good and bad operate on a place called K Street K Street is not just a road that connects one part of Washington DC to another it is shorthand for Washington's influence industry where lobbyists persuade government to bend their clients way on everything from tax breaks to airplane safety rules and today the business of K Street is booming decades ago there were just a few hundred registered lobbyists six years ago there were 16,000 now there are more than 30,000 it's a multi-billion dollar industry that shows no sign of slowing down it seems well everyone needs a lobbyist everyone from the Girl Scouts to General Motors every possible group in America is doing something in Washington you name it they all are pushing something Charles Lewis is the founder of the Center for Public Integrity a watchdog group in the nation's capital there's people that want specific things that get their way they get the ear of those in power and help keep these people frequently in power regardless of party and the public ends up being a bystander in their own democracy that is really what we're talking about here lobbying has grown so much it is bursting it's seen when you go from a hundred lobbyists to thirty thousand in a few decades it's natural that they're not all going to fit on one Street so they've spilled it over here and this would be where you'd want to spill because they want to meet with powerful officials in the executive branch and in legislative branch in Congress and they don't have a lot of time to meet these people K Street is expanding to Pennsylvania avenues at the point now it is Pennsylvania Avenue is the 16 blocks that connect to power centers in Washington the White House and Congress it's also the Avenue the newly elected president walks from the Great Dome where he is sworn in to the White House when schoolchildren are taken through the Capitol under the Great Dome they're taught this is where laws are made this is where the dance of legislation gets carried out true I mean the laws are voted on there but that's not usually where they're they're first conceived and where the hard sausage-making process of the really happened this all in all these buildings and offices and you know fact that I remember when I went to school they didn't even mention lobbyists in the history books there were three branches of government I had no idea - I was an adult and I arrived here that everything I had read was basically not right that's not really how it works here to show us how it does work Lewis took us to a new kind of Washington Monument one devoted to influence-peddling at 101 Constitution Avenue where Pennsylvania Avenue ends and Congress begins sits a gleaming new 10 story building it is home to some of the busiest paid persuaders among them mining insurance and tobacco interests on the ground floor is an elegant restaurant Charlie Palmer where lobbyists and lawmakers meet over $80 steaks 101 Constitution has been called K Street in a box if folks want to see what really goes on in Washington they should skip the Capitol come over here oh this building this is where the action is thousands of people in this building hundreds of businesses and representing every conceivable powerful interest in the city of Washington almost well they certainly have a glorious view at the Capitol particularly when you're on the roof what they do you frankly can't top it I mean short of being at the Capitol itself this is about as good as it gets and of course members can just scurry over here very quickly for a drink for a meeting for a fundraiser and it's quite convenient we invited top lobbyist John raffaeli to lunch at Charlie Palmer where he took us inside the world of lobbying everybody's got a lobbyist I don't think there's anybody here he doesn't Rafaela is a Washington insider he worked for Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen on the Senate Finance Committee and helped close friend Bill Clinton win his presidential campaign for more than two decades raffaeli has been a lobbyist representing diverse clients from Baby Einstein videos to Microsoft our most lobbyists and for the money probably the same reason you any job why do you work take care of your family and um this is a skill set you got and into a work no have you left you would you say yeah the skill set you got but it's also a set of contractors uh contacts are made because of your skill uh yeah you know you're not going to have those relationships if you're not good at the business the only thing you've got up there is your word it's a credibility question because you know in this town it's about power and and if you lie to somebody out there they will know and they will tell others and you are toast my only point here and it's not a very sophisticated point obviously that even a photograph of you that is to say the lobbies shaking hands with the doorkeeper to power even that pictures taken a handshake in your office is worth something oh sure I mean the reality is that I may be the smartest guy in the world about how the committee's two committees work but if people don't think I have the relationships with the members or the ability to communicate to those members and make their case and it doesn't matter I'll bring it down so do you want your picture taken with the Chairman's sure do you want you to treat your team with a speaker absolutely do you want your picture taken with the president sure because it means you've been around them and you've had the ability to get there somehow and they think that's good but there are others like Lewis who believe this kind of access to power is not good for democracy I once sat with the head of the insurance industry and while I was sitting there a very famous senator called that president of that Trade Association and next thing I know the the person I'm talking to the lobbyist is giving information they had done private polling in the Senators state about an issue and this is something the senator couldn't do himself didn't have the money to hadn't taken the time and he was wrapped in attention on the other end of the phone and then they were dependent on this organization these lobbyists not just for the money which is a big dependency but also the information providing special favors to lawmakers gives special interests leverage when they want something in return I have a reason to believe you're not gonna like this language but if one of your clients calls you and say hey I hear there's a bill being proposed for X and that's gonna hurt me a lot get in there and kill that thing in that case you pretty much a hit man you go in and you want to shoot it in the head pretty much way it works and my job is to go in and convince the committee it's not worth looking at it's not a good idea there are so many other things you should be doing before you get to that that's what you tell the congressman oh here's Stephan absolutely everything you do is the right thing to do the question is why we're gonna do this one now come on well there's better things to do but not everyone has a lobbyist here's where it breaks down what about groups that don't have any lobbying at all the 60 80 million who are underinsured or uninsured with health care what about the one in six children living in poverty who do they talk to they don't have a lobbyist and so what happens is you have thousands and I do mean thousands of lobbyists on one side imparting this very very important information which possibly may not be entirely objective information and that you have no one on the other side saying well wait a minute are you sure did you think about this without a lobbyist it's hard to develop relationships with lawmakers and there is no better way of developing a relationship says Lois than by whisking a member of Congress or their staff away from Washington for so-called educational or investigative trips the last five years members of Congress and staff have taken 23,000 trips over 3,000 23,000 trips around the world as incredible as that sounds big business like the nuclear energy and pharmaceutical industries according to the Center for Public Integrity sponsored more than 50 million dollars worth of pricey trips to places like Las Vegas the Caribbean Italy and France to name a few although lobbyists can't sponsor these trips their clients Institute's or trade associations can what happens is they'll have an ostensibly purpose for the trip like a conference on this or that and I'll take a whole group of industry lobbyists with them that means that every day day in and day out breakfast lunch and dinner not to mention drinks and did I say more drinks and golf they're hanging out with these guys Ben Denari are becoming their pal hearing about their children you name it and bonding and bonding doesn't just take place while lobbyists Wine and Dine congressmen or take them on all expense paid vacations it also happens as lobbyists Raffaelli when you help a congressman with the endless race for campaign cash lobbyists give without any expectation of something coming back on any particular issue you're kidding no I give with the hope that if you get reelected let's assume your congressmen start from Oakland but if congressman stark will at least allow me to get into his office and make my case George I'd rather have you get reelected from Oakland than somebody else so so lobbyists tend to become not Democrats and Republicans they tend to become incumbents you know the party of incumbents it is about access but it's because you've got a relationship with somebody who allows you to make the case to us that you know regardless whether you're going to win or lose on that issue how do you feel about that I feel okay about it would you rather not have to do it is wonderful hey nobody likes fun right I mean I don't know why they call it fun right there's no fun in fun racing it's it's a pain in the butt if you're coming to a member asking them to help you on everything and and and their biggest need for help is getting votes and getting money to get reelected or to raise money for their party and they asked you to help and you say no then how you gonna have much of a working relationship you're always there asked him but you're never helping during this last election special interest in lobbyists helped like never before the candidates raised more than a billion dollars making this the most expensive congressional election on record and the race for more campaign cash is already underway in Washington as K Street Band's out across the city attending fundraisers like this one for Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd as Dodd works the room he is surrounded by lobbyists including some from the banking and finance industries eager to help and at meet-and-greet events for lawmakers after the election lobbyists seek out any politician they can find a center Steve reviews the bankers it's always good to see lobbyists don't give lawmakers money at this event they leave their cards so lawmakers can call them later and seek contributions what would you agree or disagree that lobbyists have an image problem right now you know it's a little bit like being you know being a lawyer and a lobbyist I get the worst of both images yes and why because generally the the worst of what happens in Washington gets reported have or have not some lobbying firms engage their own own public relations firms and even their own lobbyists to lobby for the Lobby firm yeah because even lobbyists believe lobbyists are necessary uh-huh isn't necessary won't even have to harems know for yourself um I think you don't want to fight some of the crazy battles that come up because when a Jack Abramoff takes you know something to the extreme and the absurd and the obscene and that becomes the entire image of your industry you raise Jack Abramoff is what he did what he was engaged in is sort of standard practice I mean the answer has to be knowing it's obvious that you can prove the point that it's not a standard I think Abramoff was a modern aberration coming up next how the apron off scandal has turned Washington upside down and still has it worried Jack Abramoff has become the poster boy for what happens when a super lobbyist goes bad and breaks the law last week he began serving a 70 month sentence in federal prison but Washington is now buzzing over the news that Abramoff may be preparing to name more names the Abramoff story is a disturbing wake-up call on how a lobbyist can infiltrate Washington to the highest levels it's also a story of how unsuspecting clients can be hoodwinked by a smooth-talking power broker in January Abramoff pleaded guilty in u.s. district court to fraud tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials looking more like a mobster than a high-powered lobbyist the man who bought Washington provided lavish trips campaign contributions free mails at this posh restaurant signatures and free tickets to sporting events to lawmakers and others in exchange for favors so far seven people have pleaded guilty and one person has been convicted of crimes including Republican congressman Bob ney of Ohio who is forced to resign and is heading to prison to understand Jack Abramoff and his elaborate scams we turn to one American Indian tribe Native Americans far away from Washington the Tigua tribe sits on the outskirts of El Paso Texas and is more like a small town than a vast windswept reservation their history is one of struggle from 1680 to when the tribe was brought down here by the Spanish through history we did we were slaves back then we did build a missions and by no means where we wealthy art Sinclaire is the governor of the tribe he says everything changed in 1993 casino was opened up in regards to high-stakes bingo and we were able to become in a sense self-sufficient not dependent on somebody else and profits from the speaking Rock Casino paid for housing a school bus food for the elderly and a library on a yearly basis at its very peak it was bringing in approximately 62 million dollars a year gross but in early 2002 the state of Texas closed down the Tigua tribes casino ending many of the programs soon after Jack Abramoff contacted the teakwood tribe with an offer to help reopen their casino he was front cover story on Time magazine about his successes with southern tribes through legislative process Carlos he soon is the lieutenant governor of the Chico what I discovered in my research was that Jack Abramoff was the lobbyist was the man that he was a friend to tribes and then he had a record on successfully doing things for tribes out there did I find anything negative no everything was that Abramoff knew how to work Washington and be able to be as a success they were impressed with Abramoff's connections to powerful Republicans like Ben house Majority Leader Tom DeLay and presidential adviser Karl Rove Abramoff was a key Republican Rainmaker raising millions of dollars for the party in fact Abramoff was so well regarded at the one of his American Indian clients was invited to visit Abramoff told the teakwood tribe in a meeting his plan to reopen their casino required lobbying and campaign contributions to the right lawmakers it would cost them 4.2 million dollars I walked out of that room convinced that by October he would reopen he knew what he wanted to do and he knew how to get in he was going to get it done lobbyist John Raffaelli says Abramoff was among other things a very good pitchman Jack Abramoff did was find very naive clients but they've read enough stories heard enough stories about you know how lobbying works to believe that they when you tell these tribes brand new wealth find a new position to protect your position you need to spend me is that's what GE did that's what General Motors uh you know you've got to get in there with the gig guys I don't know any better so they're trusting them and they buy in part of buying in involved hiring Abramoff's friend the way Abramoff reported he was not going to get a penny from that he could not because he was not registered as a lobbyist for the tribe so he could not receive a penny this money was going to go to Michael Scanlon and some of the money was going to go for contributions as well Michael Scanlon was a press secretary to Tom DeLay he became a lobbyist and then formed his own grassroots Lobby firm Abramoff told his clients including the Tigua to hire Scanlon sloppy firm and then in a secret deal Abramoff and Scanlon split the profits Abramoff also directed the Tigua to start funneling campaign contributions to specific lawmakers when Abramoff asked for I think was a total of two hundred thousand dollars to contribute to the Republican Party it would came in no surprise I knew we would have to do that it was just part of the game part of the system the way things are being done in Washington and Abramoff had a friend in Congress who did him favors then you're never going to hear anybody say that but quid pro quo you know you give me something I'll give you something in return Peter stone is a reporter for National Journal who followed the Abramoff investigation for months as it was unfolding he's written a book called heist about the scandal one of the key elements of the Tigua shakedown was getting a commitment early on from congressman bob day Stone says congressman a as chairman of the House Administration Committee agreed to insert a provision to reopen the tikva casino in an election bill it was pitched very much as he's going to do us favor you know we've got to get these campaign contributions to him on March 20th 2002 Abramoff emailed Scanlon just met with ney we reppin gold he's going to do Tigua call me apron off email the Tigua to send campaign contributions to Congress and nays political war chest but according to Abramoff the deal was still not sweet enough Renee he wanted a golf vacation Abramoff did contact the tribe and asked for a $50,000 contribution for a trip scheduled to Scotland his pitch was that there was going to be some influential people going to this trip and that he needed to get him on our side the Tiguan decided not to fund the trip however another tribe that wanted to open a casino did it is against the law for lobbyists to take congressmen on trips and no government trip is supposed to be a paid vacation but in 2002 that's exactly what happened on his official disclosure forms congressman nay said he made a speech in Scotland and that he came here to London to visit the British Parliament instead congressman day and two of his staff members played golf in Scotland at a world-famous course with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and while they did come to London staying at an expensive hotel they never visited the British Parliament the cost of his all-expense-paid vacation including travel by private jet exceeded one hundred sixty thousand dollars all courtesy of Jack Abramoff and his clients when congressman a returned to Washington he met the Tigua at his Capitol Hill office ironically though ney had learned slightly before the trip took place that a Democratic senator who Abramoff and Scanlon had said was going to be managing a similar provision the Senate had never really committed to this bill whatsoever so before they ever went to Scotland he knew the reopening of the casino was dead so Nate in effect continued to string the tribal long as Abramoff was stringing the tribe along on this provision that ney had said he would put in what the Tigua didn't know is that another Indian tribe felt threatened by the Teague was casino and hired Abramoff to shut it down Abramoff was working two efforts one of them was to shut us down and then once he succeeded in shutting us down unbeknownst to us then he came back and he says you know I want to be able to open you up it's hard to speculate what he was thinking I mean he clearly it was dollar signs I mean it's devastating because these individuals work on China's down and then they come back and they attack us that are very very delicate moment where we're I'm going to use a word desperate because we were at the Senate Indian Affairs hearings in fall 2004 the teeth will learn more about Abramoff's true motive for contacting them his life great or what exclaimed Jack Abramoff in an email to his friend and business partner Michael Scanlon on February 19 2002 few would have quibbled with mr. Abramoff at the time as we learned during the committee September 29th hearing the two men shared a secret partnership that connived to collect at least 66 million dollars from six American Indian tribes across the nation Senator John McCain confronted Abramoff as he read one of his emails back to him I'm on the phone with Tigua fire up the jet baby we're going to El Paso wrote Jack Abramoff in a February 6 2002 email responding Michael Scanlon summarized their objective I want all their money another email was read by Ben Nighthorse Campbell at the time the only Native American senator at one time or another according to your emails you and mr. Scanlon referred to tribes as morons stupid idiots monkey's effing troglodytes which you defined as a lower form of existence and losers my question concerning your definition of those clients as this do you why would you want to work for people that you have that much contempt for mr. Chairman I respect the committee's process that's why I'm here today but in light of the correspondence that occur between the committee and my counsel including the committee's decision not to make any provisions for my testimony through a grant of legislative immunity I have no choice but to serve my various constitutional privileges against having to testify Abramoff invoked his constitutional privilege over and over again Sara respectfully I invoke the privileges previously stated senator Campbell put the hearings into historical perspective during the testimony of Michael Scanlon Abramoff partner-in-crime you have to tell you that for 400 years people have been cheating Indians in this country are not the first one mr. Scanlon it's just a shame that in this enlightened day that you've had a new dimension to a shameful legacy of what's happened to American Indians you're the problem buddy what's happened to American Indians this committee is adjourned he has pled guilty to violating laws to try conspiracy to broad public officials he has done this in an extraordinary way but there are many versions of this in Washington that have proliferated in recent years as the pressure to give the pressure for access the pressure for more campaign money has mushroomed in many different ways lobbyists Raffaelli had another take on a pramana yeah unfortunately the criminal element occasionally gets represented you know they may have been good people when I came up here but greed whatever something takes over in like in corporate America the banking world or anywhere yeah the guy who start stealing money from the tiller well if I read the papers right and read some of the reports that Abramoff stood to make as much as 60 million dollars yeah how that happened is beyond my imagination I think every lawyers in town Oh first you had to resent what he did but you also had to look at it and say wow how do you get those kind of B's yeah oh whoa yeah I've never any money by that oh those fees allowed Jack Abramoff to live a lavish lifestyle in this million-dollar mansion he's now traded that lifestyle for a cell in this federal prison in Cumberland Maryland coming up next take a look at how modern-day loan sharks use K Street you may be surprised to see what happens when K Street is hired to protect the interest of an industry there's been accused of taking advantage of senior citizens and US soldiers it works like this millions of Americans take out small loans from so-called payday loan shops and then find themselves paying sky-high interest rates that can soar to five hundred percent a year but making loans for people who live paycheck to paycheck has become a booming business and thanks to hired guns here in Washington and around the country there's nothing illegal about it once upon a time at least according to Hollywood if you didn't pay back your loan on time you got a visit from fellows with brass knuckles and baseball bats nowadays getting the money is still easy but the pain can be felt more in your wallet payday loan shops are now a forty billion dollar business with more than twice the number of stores as Starbucks some payday loan companies are even traded on the stock exchange the ads make it seem easy stuff happens in life and sometimes that stuff costs a little more than we happen to have at the moment well I'm feeling that squeeze the only place I'll go is Advance America cash advance Mary Ann Olsen who lives in Portland Oregon was short the money she needed to buy a pair of orthopedic shoes she thought a payday loan sounded like a good idea I needed a hundred and forty dollars for the shoes and I needed to get because of my feet I went ahead to pay a loan and that's fine I borrowed 150 Olson who has multiple sclerosis lives in an assisted living home and qualified for a loan because of her study Social Security checks I remarked about the interest in this and they said well you only be paying five or ten percent interest and and I believed him when it came time to repay the loan Olson was short a few dollars and so she solved the problem by taking out another loan I just went to another payday loan and got more money to pay them off and then a third payday loan - to pay off the second one because it was every two weeks it became a compulsion for me and I was sitting at the bus stop and across the street was another payday loan and I just went right across the street and borrowed the money it was that easy only takes about twenty minutes then I save kandi ed MERS whiskey of the nonpartisan US Public Interest Research Group doesn't think payday lenders are so nice he views them as old-time loan sharks with modern-day political savvy and connections he and a group of consumer advocates are trying to shut the industry down it's kind of like the game of what we call whack-a-mole first you restrict them then they pop up in another place and you've got to beat them back again well how does this work what tactics do they use to get their influence spread and get their way in Congress with the regulatory groups at the federal level the first thing you do is you get a public relations flack and your flack says create an association with a benign sounding name and they created the community financial services association sounds well it sounds very very nice you come up with a name that sounds wholesome even though the business you're in might be distasteful I mean lending money at 500% interest you want to call yourself a community group because that D flex from the attention that you would otherwise get second hire some lobbying firms to advise you on where to distribute your campaign donation that's advice payday lenders took to heart in the past five and a half years they've pointed up nearly five million dollars to lobbyists their chief advocate is Tim roughly who under Republican rule was considered one of the most influential lobbyists in town we wanted to speak to roughly but he declined he happens to be the one that the payday lenders went to and said we need influence to prevent Congress from passing a bill that will make our loans illegal and we're going to pay you a lot of money to do that RUP Lee has earned more than two million dollars from payday lenders in the past three years he is a renowned fund raiser in the past five and a half years roughly and his wife have donated more than $250,000 to lawmakers altogether payday lenders their lobbyists and spouses donated more than three million to members of Congress since 2001 for a long time the investment paid off as Congress looked the other way when cases of people destroyed by predatory lending came to light the average member of Congress if he or she is getting campaign donations from a payday lender if he or she is generally hearing from these people that we are just providing a choice we're out there in the neighborhoods providing a service they don't want to be the ones that you shut them down pat Cirillo a statistician who often works for the payday loan trade groups says her own research shows that consumers do know what they're getting into it's as simple as it gets there's a poster on the wall hundred dollars costs fifteen dollars two hundred dollars cost 30 dollars it's incredibly obvious and when you talk to consumers and they explain the costs of their various options they clearly understand the difference but many like Mary Ann Olson do not understand what they're getting into in a short time she owed money to nine different payday loan shops and was carrying a service charge that swallowed most of her Social Security checks Olsen began bouncing checks and bank fees before she knew it those $150 orthopedic shoes had cost her more than $2,000 they were calling me 12 times a day I had changed my telephone number they overdue drew my bank account knowing there was no money in there it was it was devastating I was a nervous wreck I really was I you know I had trouble sleeping eating I was out every day trying to find money and yet you know it was partly my fault for not being a wiser consumer but consider what consumers are up against an industry that benefits when folks don't read the fine print and one that can pay for political protection you make donations to both sides of the aisle you have a partner running the company from both sides of the aisle the payday lenders have Mike Oxley a Republican in the house they have Tim Johnson a Democrat in the Senate as their number one guns in the past few years both Oxley and Johnson among other lawmakers have sent letters to federal regulators criticizing proposed payday lending restrictions the industry nurtures its relationships with lawmakers and key congressional staffers by hosting conferences near warm sunny beaches last March payday lenders flew in senator Tim Johnson and state legislators to Palm Springs another favorite spot is Jackson Hole Wyoming once you're out in a beautiful place like Jackson Hole or Hawaii or Miami you've got the member you can have an individual meeting so you have maximum access which can result in leveraging quite a bit of influence is that the theory absolutely is that the pract in fact one of the best places is if you've got your own plane Advance America apparently agrees the company has made its jets available to both Democratic and Republican lawmakers among them Tom DeLay Mark Warner Joe Lieberman and Mike actually plus the Democratic Governors Association these rides are not free but they are usually given at a fraction of the actual cost and well below first-class air fares well consumer interest groups including your own are looking to influence congressman as well do you take people on these junkets can you if we had the money I suppose it would be legal but we would probably consider it improper for more than five years payday lobbyists beat back all attempts at consumer protection they had a landmark victory last year when they were able to bottle up a proposal by senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina who was trying to prevent payday lenders from gouging military personnel predatory lenders they pressured Dole to withdraw her bill and instead asked the Pentagon to study the matter the tactic backfired when the Pentagon's report was released this fall it was devastating Admiral Charles Abbott's testified that payday lending is the most serious single financial problem military personnel have ever encountered we see every day in our offices around the country individuals who have come in and fallen into the Venus flytrap of the payday lending problem and it has literally destroyed their lives just ask Brian Anderson an aviation Warfare Systems operator from San Diego who borrowed $300 and ended up having to pay back 15,000 I was very surprised that it happened to me I didn't think I'll get myself caught up in this vicious cycle Anderson who is 34 has been in the surface for half his life in 2002 he was short on cash and worried about feeding his family I have three kids ages 13 nine and five and all of them are different grown cycles and so you know you have to go out there buy clothes for them you have to feed them they need their toys and stuff plus you sell your everyday expenses that you have to take care of your gas the meanness of the cars insurance so it added up a lot he found a payday shop near his space and before long he was caught in the same deathtrap as Mary Ann Olsen I could stand for payday to come around because I would have to start my little routine of winning one store to pay them off taking an online I'll go to Nellis or pay em off and they figured with the military they have a good cry and because if I defaulted my loan they could go to the commanding officer and say hey you know this guy was his money at a Senate hearing this fall senator Johnson made one last stand submitting a proposal from the payday lending industry that he acknowledged he hadn't actually read one last question and I know nothing about this proposal myself it was called to my attention that the CFSA has made a proposal to DoD but Undersecretary of Defense David Chiu took on payday lenders and Senator Johnson it can have disastrous consequences for the quality of life and for the careers of service members where do you suggest these guys go what do you say to that young soldier but what do you even let's go to his mother's funeral you're going to do the issue is predatory lending finding it are getting people in over their heads taking military people into a debt load that they cannot sustain it's not about airline tickets to her funeral in the end the payday Lobby lost this battle the Senate approved a 36% interest cap on lending to military personnel and their families as part of the defense authorization bill and immediately the largest payday lenders announced they close their shops near military bases and stop lending to soldiers altogether it's unfortunate that it took a war to ban payday lending even to one segment of our society but I hope that Congress will say oK we've protected military families what about protecting everyone else Cindy Vega works for a trade group that represents check cashers and payday lenders consumer groups claim it as a victory on the face of it it may seem that way but the ultimate end to that may be that it restricts choice for military personnel in terms of how they handle their finances and we think that's a shame the payday loan business is absolutely going to try to regroup they're going to try to pass a law next year to weaken what the Congress did they're going to try to go state-by-state and make it easier to lend to the rest of us because they don't have the gravy train of the military families but airman Brian Anderson hopes Congress puts them out of business period a three hundred dollar loan many many years ago turning a fifteen thousand dollars and fees and interests and return checks is one of the things I would not wish that upon anybody coming up next out former members of Congress cash in on pastry the influence industry is famous for the dollars it pours into the pockets of Congress but what's happening more and more these days is the lure of money for those leaving Capitol Hill to cash in on K Street it's distressing how often it happens it never used to be as frequent as we see today Craig Holman is a lobbyist for a consumer advocacy group in Washington called public citizens Congress watch the tactic that lobbyists frequently use to try to persuade lawmakers or congressional staff to help them out is what we call the revolving door and you know it's it's a very similar practice to handing over a wad of cash similar Holman says because lobby firms make lucrative job offers to politicians if they walk through the revolving door from government into private business when people get elected to Congress or get the privilege of serving as a congressional staffer they develop networks and knowledge of the people who are in government the people who are staffing the committee's what matters to them who's actually calling the shots on different policy issues I mean they've got this inside knowledge that no other Americans have and members of Congress increasingly used that knowledge and become lobbyists in fact according to Congress watch over a recent six-year period almost half of the retiring congressman joined lobby firms well is this not a case of government officials cashing in well it is there's no question about that Charles Lewis from the Center for Public Integrity and what's wrong with having spent some time in government service public service get on the outside make a better living well no it's it's it's not only the American Way it is especially the Washington way and the Washington way says Hoeven is not to be troubled if a conflict of interest arises even if there is no real corruption involved in there the mere facts that someone as a member of Congress is thinking in terms of getting a private sector job as a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry while at the same time weighing legislation and dealing with the lobbyists of the pharmaceutical industry that's a potential conflict of interest that Coleman says is what happened with former representative Billy Townsend from Louisiana Billy Tauzin was working on the prescription drug bill back in 2003 and he put in that bill everything the pharmaceutical industry wanted he put in that bill that there would be no price controls on drugs he put in that bill that the federal government could not use its market power to leverage lower prices and buying drugs two months later he announced that he would not seek reelection and started getting lucrative job offers including one to be the pharmaceutical industry's top gun in Washington that just reeks of of the potential of bribery I mean it certainly does not pass the smell test Towson says he was not negotiating for a job with the pharmaceutical industry while he was working on the prescription bill nevertheless a month before Towson stepped down from Congress on January 3rd 2005 he accepted a position as the CEO and president of the pharmaceutical manufacturers Association at an estimated yearly salary of two million dollars another former member of Congress who has cashed in on his public service is Representative Bob Livingston also of Louisiana you might remember Livingston as the member of Congress who asked for President Bill Clinton's resignation over the Monica Lewinsky affair congressman Livingston admitted to his own extramarital affair and announced he would leave Congress he resigned on a Thursday and the next Monday he opened his lobby shop and in the first year of his Lobby shop he pulled in 1 million dollars and he's now pulling in roughly about 8 million dollars a year among Livingston's clients the government of turkey in 2003 turkey wanted Livingston to stop a resolution wreck the Armenian Genocide in the early 1900s from passing in Congress he had the representatives the Prime Minister and others of Turkey stand outside the doorway where they greeted all the members of Congress as they went in for the floor vote on these issues and the strategy worked the resolution did not pass Livingstone like many other government officials should become lobbyists must wait one year before contacting his former colleagues on behalf of clients but according to Holman Livingstone found a way around that he does all the research all the planning pulls in the clients puts his name on the stationery puts his name on the on the masthead of the business itself and then when it comes to picking up the telephone and calling his former colleagues he just has one of his associates to it and his associate can say you know Bob Livingston is saying that you should do this one of the most famous senators to walk through the revolving door is Bob Dole there are to be sure lots of ways to think of Bob Dole American war hero and presidential candidate intrepid salesman for Viagra easy Roy pitchman propensity and ice-cold Pepsi Cola it's doubtful though that many Americans picture senator Dole in perhaps the most accurate light as one of Washington's most powerful and most expensive lobbyists dole's clients who have paid him top dollar include Dubai ports world a foreign government owned company it came under fire after trying to take control of several key American ports in 2006 it's more than just picking up the phone it's actually having a friendship and having a cemented relationship going on with the people who are calling the shots you stand a whole lot better chance getting what she wants then if you were to hire lobbyists is on the outside but Bob Dole may have gotten more than he bargained for when he agreed in December 2003 to represent an Indonesian businessman named Johannes Wigan Arco at the time with Gennaro was the president of PT burrito Pacific one of Indonesia's largest timber with close ties to the government with Generico paid doles firm $200,000 a month an eye-opening retainer even by Washington standards doles job was to lobby US officials on a variety of issues that affected Indonesia notably to get the u.s. to resume sending millions in military aid Indonesia smartly hired Bob Dole who they knew had an inside track right into the bush administration to lobby on their behalf to try to get military grants and assistance from the United States government reinstated despite the fact of their human rights record Dole and his Lobby firm contacted and met face to face with dozens of key senators and US officials to talk about Indonesia Indonesia is a tough sell in Washington presumably because it has one of the world's worst human rights records along with the government that international watchdog groups have labeled corrupt but Bob Dole's client was about to have bigger problems one of the Indonesian government's most impassioned critics was an attorney named Munir Saeed to leave while on a flight to Amsterdam he suddenly died an autopsy revealed the noodles he was served on the flight had been laced with a massive dose of arsenic andreas Arceneaux is an Indonesian journalist who was hired by the Center for Public Integrity to investigate this case this is a sophisticated model it happened inside a plane you sing a rather a rare a poison arsenic so what does any of this have to do with Bob Dole it seems the man convicted of murdering Munir on the flight and a high-ranking officer in the Indonesian military made approximately 25 calls to each other before and after Munir was poisoned and according to evidence presented to an Indonesian court the military officers cellphone bill was paid by that Indonesian businessman when Joan Arco doles client Johannes Halton Region are kool aid the telephone bill of the general that allegedly ordered killing of money so this general work closely with johannes hardy and which owner for the president of Narita Pacific the contract between those firm and Wigan Arco was terminated one month after Munir was murdered in a statement those office said they hope the government of Indonesia does a thorough investigation and those responsible are brought to justice Lanier's widow said her husband received death threats and bombs were sent to their house even so nothing prepared her for her husband's death and how to tell the children their father was gone when they miss him I tell them that their father will remain with us because he loved us very much and we loved him so much too our only wish is to see your husband's killers brought to justice ya basta harapan Jaya my only hope is for this case to be resolved who is the murderer who is the perpetrator of this murder I'm still waiting for the real justice in Indonesia to be upheld that's what I'm waiting for she may have a long wait the sole conviction and Mona's murder has now been thrown out some say in an effort to shut down any further investigation into the possible involvement of the Indonesian government a few weeks ago a widow brought her struggle for justice to Washington a one-woman campaign to persuade the US government to put pressure on Indonesia to resume its investigation wherever it leads the State Department announced they would press for a full investigation into her husband's murder but human rights activists say those words may be meaningless since the US government has now restored military aid to Indonesia as of today Indonesia is the recipients of military assistance from the United States federal government due to Bob Dole by the way all under the name of anti-terrorism his man was such a distinguished record senator doh great war record as well as public service and politics what's he doing with presenting clients like that you see yourself as a tour guide your job is to introduce people to Washington for a fee but you're selling public service whether you're hawking a product on TV and a commercial or you're Hawking the wares of some interests god forbid it's a human rights violator since when do you start distinguishing between the good ones and the bad ones I mean at some point they're all interests at the very bedrock of our democracy is the principle that the people's government is made for the people is made by the people and is answerable to the people you notice that doesn't say mostly just for people with money yet that is the principle on which our government now operates to a large degree it's a sad thing to say and ought to be a shameful thing to hear but like it or not the politics of money has become our democratic process in many ways we've now come to the point where lobbyists are helping to write in some cases literally write the very laws of the land how do we fix a system that has become embedded in the institution that passes our laws and perpetuates itself with every election cycle each more stuck with cash than the last the new congressional leadership says lobby reform is one of its top priorities but if that reform is to take place it will depend on the voices from Main Street somehow someway drowning out those on K Street for HDNet dan Rather reporting you

Channel: Dan Rather Reports

Views: 27,739

Rating: 4.895288 out of 5

Keywords: Congress, Money, Lobbyists, Lobbying, Government, Policy, Politicians, Republicans, Democrats, Dan Rather, Dan Rather Reports

Id: NowpCswP40c

Length: 56min 33sec (3393 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2013