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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (27175)	7/11/2002 1:47:17 AM
From: calgal	Respond to of 59480

Democrats target business scandals By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY Inside news Cheney, former company sued WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats home for the July Fourth holiday got an earful from constituents outraged at corporate misconduct and its toll on their retirement accounts. They came back to the Capitol with a theme for the fall campaign. "This is an issue that works," says Howard Wolfson, political director for the party's campaign committee for the House of Representatives. "And if an issue works, we're going to use it." Evidence of that determination abounds. Tom Daschle and Richard Gephardt, the party's Senate and House leaders, lined up at a news conference with laid-off workers from Enron and WorldCom. Senators sought to outdo each other in toughening a bill to crack down on abuses in the accounting industry. The party unveiled a Web site on corporate accountability, and Wolfson is advising Democratic candidates on how they can link the issue to everything from Social Security to prescription-drug coverage. Their appetite has been whetted by the administration's own ties to corporations. President Bush, the nation's first commander in chief with a master's degree in business administration, has been on the defensive about his late filing of required forms on a stock sale a decade ago, when he was an official at Harken Energy in Texas (The Securities and Exchange Commission cleared him of wrongdoing). Vice President Cheney's stewardship as CEO of the oil services company Halliburton was challenged by two advocacy groups, one liberal and one conservative. It's too early in the 2002 election campaign to determine whether the strategy is catching on. Republicans profess no worries, but House Republicans called a news conference Wednesday to blame Senate Democrats for failing to act on corporate responsibility legislation. In the Senate on Wednesday, it was clear that the issue is potent. Republicans joined with Democrats in a series of unanimous votes on measures to toughen penalties on corporate criminals. One would make executives subject to up to 10 years in jail for securities fraud or document shredding. Another would freeze big bonuses paid to corporate officials whose companies are under securities investigation. A third would impose up to a 10-year term for defrauding pension funds. Analysts agree the issue has the potential to be a major factor in November, particularly if the economy slips back into recession or if more corporate misdeeds turn up. The stakes are high: Democrats control the Senate by a single seat, and a shift of six seats in the House would give them control there. "Republicans have to be exceedingly concerned because this potentially exposes their Achilles' heel — their coziness to corporate power," says Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. Midterm elections such as this year's — the House and Senate races that fall in the middle of a president's term — typically bring low voter turnout. They tend to be forums for citizens unhappy about the way things are going, one reason the party in power in the White House almost always loses congressional seats in midterm balloting. "The Democrats have been looking for some issue to energize their troops, and the business scandals could be the thing to turn out base Democratic voters," says Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of a political newsletter. "I'm just waiting to see if the average voter sees this in partisan terms." Polls show the public is increasingly worried about the economy. In a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll over the weekend, Bush's approval rating for handling of the economy was at 58%, the first time it had fallen below 60% since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Asked who they think Bush is more interested in protecting, 47% said average Americans and 46% said large corporations. Two-thirds of Americans are less confident about the nation's economy as a result of the stock market fall, and half are less confident in their own financial situations, another worrisome sign for Bush and his party. However, Republicans say the president's tough talk this week about business ethics will help shield them from blame for corporate transgressions. "People are very angry about corporate executives who made out like bandits while leaving their employees in the dust," says Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., who is in a tough re-election race. But Bush's stern lecture on Wall Street undercuts Democrats' attempts to exploit the issue, Hutchinson says. "I think he's in front of the train." "The Democrats are at risk of overplaying their hand on this," says John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "People aren't looking at the elections, they are looking at their mutual funds. They want solutions, not campaigns." One vulnerable GOP senator says he might even benefit from the Democrats' crusade. Colorado's Wayne Allard says his Democratic opponent, Tom Strickland, worked in 1998-99 as a lobbyist for Global Crossing, one in a long line of corporations caught in financial scandal in recent months. usatoday.com

To: calgal who wrote (27175)	7/11/2002 10:51:18 PM
From: calgal	Respond to of 59480

Senate Panel OKs 401(k) Protection Thu Jul 11, 6:50 PM ET By LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Protections on employee 401(k) plans would be tightened to prevent Enron-style disasters for workers under a bill approved Thursday by the Senate Finance Committee. story.news.yahoo.com The bill, sponsored by Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., would let workers sell company stock that employers provide as matching contributions after three years. It also would require companies to provide 30-days notice to employees before they are locked out of their accounts for administrative changes. Many Enron workers heavily invested in company stock lost their retirement savings when the price plummeted. They complained that they were blocked from selling the stock for several weeks. "Good pension policy requires a very delicate balance," Baucus said. "Companies offer pensions voluntarily so we need to be careful not to make the rules and regulations so burdensome that companies stop offering pensions." The bill is less stringent that one by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy that passed the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the spring. Kennedy's bill requires workers to choose between accepting company stock as employer matching contributions or investing their own 401(k) money in company stock. It also would allow workers to sit on company boards that oversee pension plans. Baucus said those elements probably won't be included in a final version because they lack Republican support. A pension bill could be debated on the Senate floor this fall. Baucus' bill also would tax loans greater than $1 million to an employee or contractor and bar executives from shielding money in offshore trusts from taxes. Chief executives would be required to sign off on a company's income tax filing to certify its accuracy. The Republican-controlled House already approved a pension bill that also would let workers sell employer-matched company stock and would require notice of blackout periods. One hotly contested provision allows workers to receive investment advice from the same companies that manage their 401(k) retirement accounts. Democrats oppose the idea because they say the advice would be tainted by financial conflicts of interest.