At the Atlantic, James Fallows wonders why there’s been so little mention of the fact that Peter Orszag has left his post as Budget Director for a multi-million dollar position at Citigroup.
This is how Washington works right now.
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in bending the curve when it’s the revolving door connecting Washington and Wall Street.
Something like you can’t take a job with business before the government within a certain period after leaving office. If so, is there a way to apply this to political appointees and the civil service?
however, in this case, the greater damage is to the public’s perception that this well-paying job might have been compensation for a couple of years of service to the interests of Citibank.
The key point is for members of Congress, the same is not true for executive branch officials, even those that were politically appointed through the legislature. Our illustrious Defense Secretary went straight from CIA to the private sector, his predecessor went straight from that job to the Carlyle Group, and one ofhis predecessors went straight from that same job to Halliburton and straight back to government through the Vice Presidency. And its certainly a bipartisan revolving door. Clinton sits on the board of several important corporations, as does Albright, as I am sure many of Obama’s people will someday. Emmanuel has gone in and out ever since his career, and I was in the same room with him where as mayoral candidate he reminded investment bankers he was ‘one of their own’ and that ‘their interests aligned with those of Chicago’. Until we have serious campaign finance reform in this country this will always be a problem. A friends aunt was an MEP from Ireland, her government paid her the equivalent of $30,000 to run her campaign, and gave the same amount to all of her opponents regardless of party and public support. In fact, as a Green party candidate, that public funding was vital to her winning the seat and she never spent more than two or three thousand dollars of her own money on the campaign. By starting at the bottom we can work our way to the top. Sadly McCain-Finegold is dead, Finegold and McCain c. 2000 are long gone from the Senate, and this President will do nothing since he stands to benefit as the biggest recipient and spender of campaign cash in human history, and will likely be in the same position again. This also paves the way for more Bloombergs entering public service, and thus that do come from nothing and achieve power (like Clinton) immediately are compensated by corporate America ensuring the plutocracy is preserved. The days of destitute former presidents who either sell memoirs (like Grant) or get pensions (like Truman), in both cases under the extreme necessity to save their family farms, are long gone.
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Renewing the American Economy New York, NY / March 27, 2008
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p>Reminds me of something…
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p>Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Renault: Oh. Thank you very much.
who was a big sell-out. So it’s not surprising Orszag cashed in. Nor that, as Obama’s budget advisor, he favored the big corporations. He’s already done Citigroup favors with the policies he supported. This new fat salary looks like it is just Orszag getting his back scratched.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper…
That MEP I mentioned was most impressed with Daschle when she met him and was so certain he’d enact Irish style healthcare insurance in the US.
That post would only merit a 5 were it not for the great quote from my favorite film.
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p>JohnD, this could be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
Talk about putting paycheck before principle, Dick Gephardt was one of the most ardent advocates for recognizing the Armenian genocide in the US Congress. Now, as he is a paid lobbyist representing many firms, including the government of Turkey, he has killed recent efforts to recognize it. He claims the flip flopping is due to Turkey’s support in the GWOT and fear of alienating an ally, but I am sure the dollar signs going off in his eyes as the ka-ching sounds the alarm helped him arrive at this conclusion. Corporate lobbying is corruption by another name, or to put in in SAT analogy form, corporate lobbying is to corruption as escort service is to prostitution.
mentioned while an official is still in government and able to aid the future emlpoyer in one way or another, how is this any different from bribery? It reeks of quid pro quo, and as far as I’m concerned this revolving door crap is just as reprehensible as the kind of stuff Rangel did, and probably more dangerous to our democracy. As usual, the joke’s on us. Scary that nobody even seems to care.