ALEC Owns Virginia Lawmakers

In today's On the News segment: New report by the advocacy group ProgressNow shows lawmakers in Virginia have outsourced their jobs to the shadowy, Koch brothers-funded, corporate think tank known as ALEC; yesterday, the Federal Reserve called on Congress to take concrete steps to address the ongoing collapse of the US housing market; inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, activists will "occupy" courts across America on Citizens United Anniversary; US war machine is about to take a cut; and more.

You need to know this. Virginia officially has the best government money can buy. According to a new report by the advocacy group ProgressNow – lawmakers in Virginia have outsourced their jobs to the shadowy, Koch brothers-funded, corporate think tank known as ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council. The report claims that ALEC has a “disturbing level of influence” over the Virginia legislature. ALEC works by bringing together corporate CEOs and lobbyists with elected lawmakers to come up with custom-made legislation that benefits big polluters, job outsourcers, and banksters, and hurts unions, poor people, and voters. Since 2007 – the Virginia General Assembly has introduced 50 different pieces of legislation that are “carbon copies” of model legislation written by ALEC. Not only that – taxpayers in Virginia have paid more than $230,000 to fly state lawmakers - almost all of them Republicans - to ALEC conferences across America. This is what a corporatocracy looks like.

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