When a member of a Senate or House Committee has the floor at a hearing, picture a large television monitor (think the size of the screen in the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium) airing commercials of the member’s top 5 political contributors. Big HD screen with stereo sound. It’s a win-win. The political contributors get some nice promotional placements and watchdog groups get a quick view of what might be a motivating factor in the member’s questioning and at times (too often) grandstanding for the cameras. In sum, everyone’s allegiances are in the open for all to see.
An example. The Honorable Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) yesterday accused Professor Elizabeth Warren of lying about an agreement to be available for questioning only in the morning. Surely his rant was merely a proxy for his pent-up anger about Professor Warren’s claimed “unfettered” power at the new Consumer Finance Protection Board. But nonetheless, it was pretty uncivil and unbecoming of anyone—let alone a member of the United States Congress. To believe the Congressman, Professor Warren was responsible for the Great Depression, the Chicago Cubs failing to win the World Series in over a century of trying and if left to her own devices as head of the CFPB, we will see her single handedly destroy American Capitalism.
As the Congressman blathers on, the public (who pays his salary) should be allowed, in living color, to learn more about the Congressman’s two largest, and most reliable contributors: Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Yep. Two banks with combined assets of $3,521,084,250,000[1] (that’s over $10,000 per American).
While he is blasting away at Elizabeth Warren we might as well get a visual of his patrons. Add to those behemoths a list of insurance companies, credit and finance companies, and accountants and you get a good idea of where Mr. McHenry is coming from and where he wants to take us. Can he really be taken seriously when he is beholden to the industry Professor Warren hopes to reform?
Coming next: Handsome golf shirts and hats for members of Congress emblazoned with corporate logos.