Sure enough, George W really is a compassionate conservative! For the past several months, the Bushites have been working behind the scenes to comfort a group of citizens who feel severely put upon: corrupt corporate executives.
Yes, the people who brought you the culture of corruption that allowed Enron and so many others to rip-off workers and shareholders now whine that they are frustrated with the “burden” of having to comply with audits of their corporate manipulations, as well as having to face investigations, prosecutions, and lawsuits involving corporate wrongdoing. So, two committees of top-level executives from the likes of DuPont, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and Office Depot have drafted a sweeping series of regulatory changes to make it much more difficult to catch corporate crooks and hold them accountable.
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The Bushites, always softies on corporate crime, have felt the pain of these complainers and are going all out to rig the rules for them. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, for example, has encouraged the Nouveau Enrons in private, while publicly wailing that today’s ethics requirements “made it more burdensome for companies to operate.” Well… yeah, Henry, that’s the idea! Laws are supposed to make it “burdensome” for criminals to operate.
Also, Bush has just named Robert Steel to be the senior official in the treasury department to approve or disapprove the changes proposed by the two corporate committees. Who’s he? A Wall Street banker who was chairman of one of the committees… so Steel will be ruling on his own proposals.
This is Jim Hightower saying… Bush & Company know that this power play is so smelly that the public and congress will reject it – so they deliberately withheld their plan until after the elections and intend to enact it by executive decrees, bypassing congress. To oppose them, visit www.corpwatch.org.
Sources:
“Are lying, manipulating CEOs OK with the Bush administration?” Austin American-Statesman, October 31, 2006.
“Businesses Seek Protection on Legal Front,” The New York Times, October 28, 2006.
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