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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / More on foreign money

More on foreign money

by DougJ|  October 13, 20102:51 pm| 58 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Our Failed Media Experiment

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I have to admit I am having a hard time understanding the Village crusade against Democrats for asserting that the Chamber of Commerce partially funds its attack ads with foreign money. It seems clear that this in fact going on:

According to this internal Chamber staff chart obtained by ThinkProgress, the Chamber has an international division devoted to promoting free trade and related policy issues. U.S. Chamber staffers, based here in Washington, D.C. with offices in the Chamber’s building at 1615 H Street, create bilateral “Business Councils” fundraising programs to solicit money from foreign corporations in Korea, Egypt, Brazil, Bahrain, India, and other places. For instance, the Chamber’s US-Egypt Business Council directs potential members to wire their checks to the US Chamber of Commerce. The application also notes that checks should be marked “ATTN: Leila Vossoughi.” Vossaoughi is a regular staffer at the Chamber. Promotions to join the Chamber have included promises that foreign firms obtain “access to the US Chamber of Commerce and everything that it does” and pledges to help the foreign firms promote free trade policies in America. All of the staffers who manage the Business Councils work directly for the Chamber. These Business Councils are nothing like the Chamber’s AmChams, which are foreign affiliates of the Chamber composed of American and foreign businesses abroad. Business Councils are based in the Chamber and even hosted on the U.S. Chamber’s website domain. Bylaws from the US-Bahrain Business Council confirm that the money the U.S. Chamber raises from these applications — which welcome foreign-owned businesses — goes into the Chamber’s 501c(6).

And the 501c funds the advertisements.

Where’s the dishonesty in the DNC ads saying that this is going on when it is in fact going on?

Update. To be clear, the whole CoC is a 501c. Personally, I think lack of disclosure opens groups up to these attacks.

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58Comments

  1. 1.

    david mizner

    October 13, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    We’ll see what if the MSM can find a way to downplay it now. (As Chuck Todd scratches his Van Dyke…)

    It’s a damn good line of political attack even though, or because, it plays into anti-Indian ugliness. Reminds me of the Asian money stuff under Clinton.

  2. 2.

    BR

    October 13, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    Seems like there’s a simple equation here:

    Chamber of commerce advertising budget > DNC advertising budget.

  3. 3.

    shirt

    October 13, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    More “McCarthyite innuendo?”

    Nah… Lets come out and say it: They’re selling the country to the highest bidders. Traitor is the term I’d use.

  4. 4.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    October 13, 2010 at 3:03 pm

    @david mizner: You don’t even have to bring up which particular country it is coming from, just the fact that is foreign is enough. If you try to be too specific, you’ll lose some people.

    The other day, at a Whataburger (good hamburger place in Texas), one of the coins in the roll of quarters was a coin from the United Arab Emirates. No one other than me had a clue what it was or where it was located. It was just foreign.

  5. 5.

    Glidwrith

    October 13, 2010 at 3:05 pm

    John linked to the Plum Line downthread. The article was all about how the Dems are tone deaf because Americans don’t care about foreign money in elections but they do care about corporate money and the Dems should just focus on that. I don’t get it. How hard is it to say ‘multi-national corporations’? Is it really that hard to bridge foreign money to corporations in the public consciousness?

  6. 6.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    October 13, 2010 at 3:05 pm

    @david mizner:

    I don’t think there’s that much anti-Indian stuff out there anyway. I think that people are rightly concerned about foreign money in our elections. I don’t think that’s xenophobic or anything of the sort.

  7. 7.

    Mark S.

    October 13, 2010 at 3:06 pm

    I don’t see what the problem is. Justice Kennedy assured me that money does not have a corrupting influence on politicians. He was backed up by Roberts, Scalia, Scalia, Jr., and Thomas. I’m not worried at all.

  8. 8.

    taylormattd

    October 13, 2010 at 3:06 pm

    @david mizner: But David, just 1 minute ago you were signing the praises of the Hate Obama caucus for calling Gibbs a “hypocrite” for using this attack.

  9. 9.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    October 13, 2010 at 3:07 pm

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): If you try to be too specific, you’ll lose some people.

    Yes, and possibly stir up teh hate against particular ethnic groups, which isn’t a principle I’d want to exploit.

    Where’s the dishonesty in the DNC ads saying that this is going on when it is in fact going on?

    Depends on if your definition of “honest” = “supports the narrative”.

  10. 10.

    John Bird

    October 13, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    I’m just surprised it took this long to pull the mask off of the Chamber of Commerce and its affiliates. It long ago became a tool of the biggest businesses, pooling cash for issue advocacy that only accidentally includes some small business interests. It’s basically a tax cut lobby for the businesses that need it least, and I think it’s likely that it’s turned into a funnel for foreign cash.

    The problem is that it’s been so untouchable for so long, as the purported small business lobby, that people in the Beltway are really as baffled as they seem at the idea that a lobbying group pushing to keep tax loopholes might not be on the up and up. To Tapper and the rest, it really does seem as likely that the saintly Chamber takes greasy money as that Obama was born in Africa.

    You will often see the same laughable “HOW COULD THIS BE” reaction when something bad comes out about the Catholic Church or Tiger Woods.

  11. 11.

    Zandar

    October 13, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    According to this internal Chamber staff chart obtained by ThinkProgress

    I do believe I have found the answer to your question, Doug.

  12. 12.

    Pamela F

    October 13, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    @david mizner: Excuse me, david, weren’t you in the last thread defending Glen Greenwald? This is NOT about xenophobia. This is about multinationals, with no conscience beyond the next quarter, paying to ship our jobs overseas. IT’S NOT ABOUT THE COUNTRY.

    My biggest fear is that the truth won’t surface until after the election.

  13. 13.

    Martin

    October 13, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    I don’t know. A solid half of the country have bought into this laissez-faire free-market big-government bullshit. It’s not that the Dems are wrong about saying it, but it seems like pissing into the wind. I’m just not sure what the point is, but I’m extra pessimistic today.

    The federal government receives less money in corporate taxes ($192B this year) than it gives back to corporations in defense appropriations, infrastructure spending, tax breaks in other areas and subsidies. Essentially, the taxpayers are funding the corporations to a very small degree, and that funding is now going into attack ads against Democrats.

    And yet, attacking the CoC will get the ire of the teabaggers up as Democrats being anti-business. It’s so insane I just don’t know where to begin. It just seems like the voters are so thoroughly fucked, either by buying into this bullshit, or becoming victims to those that have.

  14. 14.

    Cacti

    October 13, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    Big business didn’t buy up the media so the media could turn around and ask tough questions about it.

  15. 15.

    david mizner

    October 13, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:

    It’s a legitimate line of attack.
    It’s not xenephobic to use it.
    It of course, plays into xenephobia.

  16. 16.

    Citizen Alan

    October 13, 2010 at 3:12 pm

    Back in the summer of 2000, weren’t there credible threats to impeach Gore because that one time he called a Chinese dude from the wrong phone?

  17. 17.

    Violet

    October 13, 2010 at 3:12 pm

    @Glidwrith:

    The article was all about how the Dems are tone deaf because Americans don’t care about foreign money in elections but they do care about corporate money and the Dems should just focus on that. I don’t get it. How hard is it to say ‘multi-national corporations’? Is it really that hard to bridge foreign money to corporations in the public consciousness?

    No, it’s not hard, but taking advantage of anything like this is hard for the Democrats for some reason. Phrases like “foreign corporations funding American elections” are very easy to say and sound all sorts of wrong to the average American citizen. Giant silver platter with winning issue served upon it.

    To answer Doug’s question above, the reason the Villagers are screeching against the Dems is that Villagers are mostly tied to corporations and thus corporations=good. Any Dems that are downplaying this issue are doing so because it involves business and corporations and they’re so terrified of being branded as anti-business that they won’t sack up and tie the GOP/CoC to it.

  18. 18.

    Bob Loblaw

    October 13, 2010 at 3:13 pm

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:

    I don’t think that’s xenophobic or anything of the sort.

    What’s really the difference though between GM and Toyota at this point, though? General Electric, Exxon and Walmart are basically their own countries by now.

    The most powerful cable news organization and domestic financial paper are owned by an Australian neocon and a Saudi oil sheikh.

    Screaming “Foreigners, foreigners, foreigners! Oh, and corporations too, I guess.” is absolutely preying on xenophobia as a political strategy. Because the second one is the relevant concern. All of our multinationals are basically foreign on some level.

  19. 19.

    Paul in KY

    October 13, 2010 at 3:14 pm

    Any Democratic politician who thinks or thought that the freaking Chamber of Commerce was a non-political organization is too stupid to breath. Jeebus Christ!

  20. 20.

    John Bird

    October 13, 2010 at 3:14 pm

    @Glidwrith:

    Really? What a dumb suggestion on their part.

    The most effective thing the Democrats can do, as I’ve noted about the recent Fiorina yacht ads, is to point out that the wealthy elites of American business are internationalists who have no interest in America’s financial stability or well-being.

    Effective, because it’s true – and because it allows the Democrats to suggest that real innovators and smart businesspeople are the ones waiting out there with ideas to improve, rather than loot, America, while existing internationalist business elbows them aside.

    This argument forces Fox News and its political wing to undergo uncomfortable contortions as it attempts to convince both the xenophobes and its biggest corporate donors that it represents their interests. It’s like the immigration issue, only the target becomes the donors themselves instead of the poorly-paid labor force they depend upon.

    And it’s a possible path out of the ‘anti-business’ accusation gauntlet for the Democrats, as it realigns worker and employer interests along national lines. If you think that necessarily leads to fascism, well, then, it’s a problem – but it’s actually the path taken (at least ostensibly) by most countries, including the United States up until recently.

  21. 21.

    MikeJ

    October 13, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    @Violet: Not just foreign companies funding American elections, companies owned by foreign governments.

  22. 22.

    david mizner

    October 13, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    @Pamela F:

    All distinctions are lost on you. Greenwald was saying the White House shouldn’t be making allegations without proof. Now that proof has come out and I, Greenwald, and everyone else with a brain says it’s now fair game.

    In any case, in the thread below I wasn’t so much defending GG’s argument as pointing out what the argument was, since Cole misrepresented it.

  23. 23.

    ItAintEazy

    October 13, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    How many time do we have to be reminded about “IOKIYR” until we say it with about as much frequency as Muslims say “inshalla”?

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    October 13, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    I have to admit I am having a hard time understanding the Village crusade against Democrats for asserting that the Chamber of Commerce partially funds its attack ads with foreign money.

    I heard some clown on the radio this morning emphasizing that Obama and the Democrats were attacking the US Chamber of Commerce. They are thus attacking business, which is the very foundation of America. This dovetails with the assertions that Obama does not understand and is fundamentally hostile to business. Once you start down this rhetorical rabbit hole, the issue of foreign money influencing US political campaigns gets lost.

  25. 25.

    Martin

    October 13, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    @david mizner: The proof was out before he made the allegation. The change in the timeline was that you and Greenwald didn’t realize it, not that it wasn’t there.

    Your ignorance is not Gibbs’ fault.

  26. 26.

    Suck It Up!

    October 13, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    I don’t get it. How hard is it to say ‘multi-national corporations’? Is it really that hard to bridge foreign money to corporations in the public consciousness?

    for you its not, for the average voter – yes.

  27. 27.

    Phoenix Woman

    October 13, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    The Villagers will take the Chamber’s side because of course their bosses, who may or may not be Chamber members themselves, definitely sympathize with them.

    Furthermore, the Villagers usually go out of their way to deny credit for scoops to the reality-based side of the blogosphere, even as they freely credit and tout right-wing sites like Drudge (who rules their world) and the Daily Bawler for every single anti-Dem fauxgate the smear sites push to get media play. They usually try to put a few days’ distance between their stories and the blog posts from which they steal them so they can pretend they did original research.

  28. 28.

    cleek

    October 13, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    @Brachiator:

    the US Chamber of Commerce

    i’d bet that a lot of people think the CoC is a governmental organization.

  29. 29.

    Violet

    October 13, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    @MikeJ:
    Yep, that too. There are a lot of winning phrases and concepts to be mined from this situation. Of course the Dems will find a way to fuck it up.

    Wasn’t there some issue a few years ago where some Muslim country was going to buy or manage some of our ports or something? People really, REALLY didn’t like that idea. Sure it was largely because they were Muslim, but also because they were foreign. It’s not a big leap to imagine how this sort of issue is election gold.

  30. 30.

    cleek

    October 13, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    @cleek:
    or a punk/metal band.

  31. 31.

    Suck It Up!

    October 13, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    @Brachiator:

    The voters that we need to reach aren’t sympathizing with businesses.

  32. 32.

    Phoenix Woman

    October 13, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    @Suck It Up!: Then say “foreign businesses”. That fits better on a bumpersticker anyway. Besides, the average person certainly knows what outsourcing is.

  33. 33.

    Phoenix Woman

    October 13, 2010 at 3:25 pm

    @cleek: Ooooh! If we could only get the Glenn Beck contingent to think the Chamber’s actually part of the gubmit!

  34. 34.

    Bob Loblaw

    October 13, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    @Violet:

    Sure it was largely because they were Muslim

    No, it was entirely because of that. It was flat out race-baiting, and it had absolutely nothing to do with national security.

    So instead of the Dubai firm operating our port system, we turned it over to a much more respectable outfit–AIG.

  35. 35.

    Paul in KY

    October 13, 2010 at 3:30 pm

    @Suck It Up!: You don’t even have to say ‘multi-national’, you just pick the country (besides the US) that they are headquartered in & say: German, French, Saudi Arabian, Chinese, etc. etc. companies.

  36. 36.

    Earl

    October 13, 2010 at 3:31 pm

    I’ve been think of it as the CCoC (China), but it seems as though Bahrain & India love our markets…

    Puts Karl’s outrage over ‘baseless accusations’ ‘beyond the pale’ seem a bit silly now, doesn’t it?

  37. 37.

    El Cid

    October 13, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    If this is okay by the Chamber of Commerce, then I think it should be cool for some sort of organization to get money from PDVSA (the Venezuelan oil company) to spend in political advertising, so that at least there might be some balance in foreign donations against big US corporations. I’d rather have Hugo Chavez influencing US elections than various emirates.

  38. 38.

    Phoenix Woman

    October 13, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    I’m not surprised to see the TradMed shove this under the rug. That’s what they did with the Haley Barbour and Katrina Leung stories.

    The Leung case is especially noteworthy, as Leung’s boyfriend James Smith was the FBI agent that was busy trying to create a “Chinagate” scandal around the Democrats, even as his lover Leung was a longtime deep-cover operative for Communist China. But you won’t find a word in the national “respectable” media about this.

  39. 39.

    Martin

    October 13, 2010 at 3:35 pm

    @Bob Loblaw: What the fuck are you talking about? Democrats opposed the ports deal because it was a company run by a foreign government. Ok, so it’s AIG, but AIG at least ended up in US government hands.

    Are you really arguing that opposing turning over control of our ports to a foreign government was race-baiting? That’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve heard all day.

  40. 40.

    Abby

    October 13, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    I threw the United States Chamber out of my office during
    the 1980’s. They were against the equal rights for Women act, and yet had the balls to ask a woman business owner for
    money. All those local members bought their B.S., paid their dues, and got screwed.

  41. 41.

    Phoenix Woman

    October 13, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    @El Cid: Hugo Chavez is two up on the various oil regimes we count our friends: he actually cares about the poor and tries to help them, and his country was never used by the CIA as a rendition-and-torture site.

  42. 42.

    Davis X. Machina

    October 13, 2010 at 3:39 pm

    @cleek:

    i’d bet that a lot of people think the CoC is a governmental organization.

    Pick your snark:

    a.) And the rest think it should be…..
    b.) Unfortunately, not as many as those who think the government is a CoC operation.

  43. 43.

    Phoenix Woman

    October 13, 2010 at 3:42 pm

    @Abby:

    I threw the United States Chamber out of my office during
    the 1980’s. They were against the equal rights for Women act, and yet had the balls to ask a woman business owner for
    money. All those local members bought their B.S., paid their dues, and got screwed.

    That’s the thing: These guys aren’t that bright. They cheat, and have got so used to being able to cheat unchallenged that when they’re put in a situation where they can’t cheat, they flail and fail. Some of them still have enough brains to know that they aren’t that bright, but a number of them are so far gone that they confuse corruption with competence.

  44. 44.

    Jay in Oregon

    October 13, 2010 at 3:42 pm

    Where’s the dishonesty in the DNC ads saying that this is going on when it is in fact going on?

    But the Democrats are being poliiiiiiiiiiiiticallllllllll…
    /whine

  45. 45.

    lol

    October 13, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    News Corp is a foreign corporation (partially anyways) and they’ve definitely given money to the CoC that’s being spent on elections.

    Focus on the foreign-owned US based companies that the Chamber is openly accepting cash from.

  46. 46.

    Judas Escargot

    October 13, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    They’re selling the country to the highest bidders. Traitor is the term I’d use.

    Set up tax policy to reward corporations for exporting jobs overseas: Check.

    Weaken and undermine the military (two land wars in Asia, overuse of contractors): Check.

    Enable the pouring of unlimited, anonymous foreign money into your coffers: Check.

    Actively take steps to dismantle and destroy what’s left of the educated American professional/middle class (still the chief obstacle to a complete elite takeover): Check.

    Pollute the MSM discourse to the point where you can’t even point these things out without being labeled TEH NUTZ: Check.

    I really, really, really, really don’t want to inadvertently transform into an Alex Jones acolyte… but it’s getting harder and harder to come up with other, less irrational framing for the things I observe.

    The little ice floe of reason I cling to seems to be melting, slowly, before my eyes… (though perhaps that’s the whole point?)

  47. 47.

    Suck It Up!

    October 13, 2010 at 3:55 pm

    @Phoenix Woman:

    I’m lost now, what exactly are we disagreeing on?

    I like what the Dems are doing and think they should keep it up. I like the terms “foreign money or foreign government or foreign corporations. Foreign businesses doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

  48. 48.

    Judas Escargot

    October 13, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    News Corp is a foreign corporation (partially anyways) and they’ve definitely given money to the CoC that’s being spent on elections.

    And Murdoch’s most recent wife is a Chinese national.

    Conspiracies indeed.

  49. 49.

    bemused

    October 13, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    Friends of the Chamber just sent me an email asking for money again citing the ” blatantly false political statements” of Obama and DNC ads. They assure me that the momentum is on their side and they are not going to let up.
    This plea for donations isn’t quite as tempting as the one that enticed you with a copy of Anne Coulter’s latest book.

  50. 50.

    Bob Loblaw

    October 13, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    @Martin:

    You have no idea what you’re talking about. Those ports contracts were already operated under foreign control, in that case a British magnate. They weren’t being sold out from US control to some nefarious overseas broker, they were already foreign operated. That British company was sold to DPW, which prompted the controversy.

    Because Emiratis (even those with fucking Israeli backing) are A-rabs, and we all know they’re all secretly terrorists. But hey, our ports got to be operated by bonafide criminals in the end, and American ones at that.

  51. 51.

    Cat

    October 13, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    A) MSM is upset because they DNC attacked the CoC without ‘proof’ even if they are right! They vaguely remember something about that being wrong from journalism school, but its only wrong if its not a ‘scoop’. Scoops can be proof free as long as its gonna be a big story!

    B) Your average US voter probably thinks all multi-national companies are US owned and run, because we are the bestest. I seriously doubt they realize Toyota is a multi-national company. They probably still think of Toyota as a Japanese car company.

    C) DNC didn’t use multi-national because it was to confusing, but to stir up populist anger over the CoC anti-american worker behavior. It was a political add, not a wonky white paper.

  52. 52.

    Svensker

    October 13, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    @Bob Loblaw:

    For once, I agree with Mr. Loblaw. The anti-port thing seemed to me to be pure anti-Ay-rab bigotry, on both sides of the aisle. I remember some of the liberal blogs I was reading at the time screaming about how Bush was selling our domestic port management to “our enemies” and shooting off angry e-mails about that.

  53. 53.

    Pamela F

    October 13, 2010 at 4:20 pm

    @david mizner: Thank you for proving my point. Typical projection. Defend your ideological compatriots above all else.

    We know that international funds are in the same account. We know that there is no accountability. Unless you really believe the Chamber’s “we keep the money separate-even though it’s in the same account” b.s., it appears that you and Glen are with the Villagers. Does that make you a member of the “professional left”?

  54. 54.

    cleek

    October 13, 2010 at 4:29 pm

    NewsCorp shareholders are a little pissed about Murdoch’s political donations.

    tee hee

  55. 55.

    TomH

    October 13, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    There is virtually no cannibalism in the British Royal Navy, and virtually no foreign money in that 501(c)6.

  56. 56.

    Ailuridae

    October 13, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    Even if there were separate 501cs it doesn’t make a difference. It is (highly) irrational and incoherent to pretend that the Chamber of Commerce has these segregated piles of money where only US based companies funds go to support candidates while US and foreign companies monies go to lobby on trade proposals and union busting when nearly all of the companies in question support both things.

    First, the reason that the CoC is supporting the candidates it does (many more GOP than Dem but it certainly supports both ) is because those candidates support the same agenda that the CoC lobbies. So that is the first problem with the “separate piles” argument. Second, by using foreign money in the lobbying it allows more domestic money to be freed up to push candidates.

    For different reasons than usual reading the left blogosphere has been ugly today but not understand basic micro-economics concepts is always something they can hang their hat on.

  57. 57.

    Michael57

    October 13, 2010 at 7:39 pm

    The White House had the proof they needed before they made the accusation. They didn’t need to wait for Think Progress. They have their own sources of information and analysis.

    The idea that the most powerful institution in the world has to wait for a bunch of bloggers to establish the timeline on this story–well, that’s the kind of idea that afflicts people who spend their entire lives at the keyboard. To put it kindly, it isn’t a real-world idea.

    I love Glenzilla, but he drank his own Koolaid long ago. He and Jane have their own brand on the Internet now, and they will write what the market expects them to write.

  58. 58.

    Ginger Yellow

    October 14, 2010 at 7:58 am

    “First, the reason that the CoC is supporting the candidates it does (many more GOP than Dem but it certainly supports both ) is because those candidates support the same agenda that the CoC lobbies. So that is the first problem with the “separate piles” argument. Second, by using foreign money in the lobbying it allows more domestic money to be freed up to push candidates.”

    Indeed. Money is fungible. If someone gives me £100 a month to help with my rent, I can then spend more of my income on booze, no matter how many careful controls I put in place to ensure the rent donation isn’t spent on booze.

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