| Feature Story
(continued) |
 |
|
Money Talks,
They Listen |
Bill
Bradley
|
| Caricature
©1999 Bill Yund |
"Make no mistake about it, money talks in
American politics today as never before, and no revival of our
democratic culture can occur until citizens feel that their
participation is more meaningful than the money lavished by PACs
and big donors," then Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ) told the
National Press Club back in 1995.
Ironically, Bradley, long an advocate of campaign
finance reform, is also an ace at raising money from big donors
and PACs. Bradley has already raised $4.3 million from the likes
of Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Chase Manhattan.
In fact, pretty much the instant Bradley left the Senate, he began
raking in the dough. He raised $1.6 million for making 64 speeches
and another $430,000 in consulting fees from Wall Street firms
like Morgan Guaranty Trust. He has a million dollars of assets in
BankAmerica, and a total net worth of over $5 million.
Wall Street has gotten
their money's worth ...
When it comes to business and trade, Bradley has
given Wall Street their money’s worth. He is a stalwart defender
of NAFTA, GATT, and fast track. "We have to keep our markets
open. We have to keep capital flowing freely around the
world," he maintains. As a Senator, he got into a tussle with
unions over his support for a tax loophole that actually
encouraged pharmaceutical companies to shut down plants in the
states and move to Puerto Rico.
These days, in a bid to win labor support away
from Al Gore, Bradley has hinted that he might support labor law
reform, such as card-check recognition (requiring that the union
be recognized once a majority of workers sign union cards). But
during his Senate stint, he was not known as someone who would go
out on a limb for workers.
"Because you’ve
done well and earned money doesn’t mean that you are guilty of
something"
Bradley’s record is not too different from Gore’s,
in fact. Pundits would call him a Democratic "moderate."
His approval ratings from unions haven’t been tops. The Chamber
of Commerce liked 21 percent of his votes in 1996, his last year
in office. Bradley actually voted in favor of Ronald Reagan’s
draconian budget cuts back in 1981, citing fiscal responsibility.
(As it turned out, debt ballooned in the Reagan years, despite the
budget cuts.) While he has supported closing some corporate tax
loopholes, he also favors lower tax rates, even for the wealthy.
He took it personally when Clinton argued that it was good to
raise taxes for rich people: "Because you’ve done well and
earned money doesn’t mean that you are guilty of
something," snapped Bradley.
Bradley says he’s not for Social Security
privatization. But he was one of a handful of Democrats to vote
for school privatization in 1992, a Bush plan in the form of
vouchers.
"Let’s not
promise more than we can deliver."
During the 1994 debate on health care reform,
Bradley was timid, saying, "Let’s not promise more than we
can deliver." Bradley now says he wants to "put the
doctor back in charge of treatment decisions" instead of
"some distant HMO bureaucrat." But he doesn’t call for
a Just Health Care system that would take HMOs and profits out of
health care.
New Jersey unionists say Bradley was one of the
more accessible politicians. Unfortunately, they say, that didn’t
usually mean he would fight for you.
See also:
|
