August 27, 2013
Senator Susan Wagle, in another article in The Wichita Eagle, berated a letter by H. Edward Flentje’s commenting politicians who have used taxpayer’s money to attendALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) gatherings. (Aug. 18 Opinion)She not only defended her taxpayers support of ALEC but she also lied about its purpose and insulted Flentje’s point of view.
For example:
“First, Flentje decried the use of state funds for registration to American Legislative Exchange Council policy conferences, alleging a partisan agenda at taxpayer expense. Then he complained that companies sponsor a variety of discussions and events at the conference, and accused corporations of buying influence. Flentje then attacked ALEC’s principles of free markets, limited government and individual liberty as ideological rhetoric.”
Lie number one: nowhere does claim he is against the free market. As for smaller government, anyone who needs any kind of license renewed, or has spent three or more hours in line at the Wichita Department of Motor Vehicles, or has called a government agency on the phone and waited at least 10 minutes, knows what all this smaller government really means. As for being “against free markets and individual liberty,” he only complained about giving businesses too many tax cuts.
Another false statement by Wagle;
“The truth is Kansas lawmakers attend a variety of policy and legislative conferences throughout the year. Similar to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, the National League of Cities and the National Governors Association, ALEC is an educational nonprofit organization, does not lobby and is not a voting institution. In essence, the conference is a table at which lawmakers, policy analysts and business leaders meet to exchange ideas and inform one another on effective solutions to state and local matters.”
This is the biggest lie of all. ALEC acts as a super PAC that works mostly through Republicans and very conservative Democrats gives financial aid, policy papers and speeches to its favorite candidates. Many of our Kansas politicians have gotten substantial aid by ALEC. ALEC is a PAC and that can’t be denied. They operate with politicians in secret and they try to run US affairs without voter approval.
According to the group Exposing ALEC;
“Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations.
In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE."
As the site says, all this is done behind the backs of the voters so corporations can re-write laws to suit them and the common worker pays for this through their taxes supporting these junkets by politicians such as Wagle.
We need to keep espousing these lies and these secret anti-voter organizations such as ALEC as politicians, such as Wagle, continue to spread these lies.
