Revisiting Enron's Ties to the White House

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Things have been a little quiet on the Enron front for awhile. A lot of ties between Enron and the White House have been discovered but not much has been published about them. Here is a short summary.

· Administration coughed up more than $1 billion in taxpayer-subsidized loans to Enron Corp.

· Over a seven year period, the Administration through the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp., approves and provides grants to 19 out of 20 Enron projects to build power plants, natural-gas pipelines and other “big-ticket energy facilities”

· White House calls Enron “exemplary corporate citizen”

· Administration grants about $200 million worth of insurance against political risks for nine Enron projects in such politically volatile areas as Argentina, Venezuela and the Gaza Strip

· Administration makes three loans to the now-defunct Dabhol power project in India which was majority owned by Enron and which the World Bank declared was not economically viable and of inordinate benefit to Enron.

· Enron execs are invited on 11 Administration trade missions provided at taxpayer expense.

· The U.S. Trade and Development Agency, which sponsored the trade missions, also coughed up $1 million in funding to study Enron energy projects in Russia, Eastern Europe and former Soviet states.

· Kenneth Lay is a regular golfing partner with the President.

· Kenneth Lay is a guest of the President and stays in the Lincoln bedroom.

· Enron execs regularly attend white house coffee klatches.

· Enron contributes more than $1 million to the President’s political party.

· Shortly before the final approvals for the India power project, Enron makes its largest contribution ever ($100,000) to the Presidents political party

· Enron offers departing Treasury Secretary a position on its Board of Directors

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/2/21/153014.shtml
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,338580,00.html

** For all the Bush bashing done by Democrats early in the Enron scandal, it might surprise some that all of the above ties were with Clinton and his administration. ** Maybe this explains why the left leaning liberal media in the US has decided to let the Enron story die.

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That all said did Enron give more money to Republicans, or Democrats in the past 10 years?

I saw that the first link offers Ann Coulter's book for free, if anyone needs something to start a fire you might want to look into it.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by underthedome: *
That all said did Enron give more money to Republicans, or Democrats in the past 10 years?

[/QUOTE]

I don't really know. Maybe you could provide some sources for this information. At least during the 8 Clinton years, they seem to have given more to Democrats at a national level. Willie and Al were their guys. It only makes sense to pay off the guys in power as they are the ones who can help you. For the 8 Clinton years when Enron grew from nothing to something very, very big, Enron, Lay and Clinton seemed to flourish in their mutually beneficial relationship don't you think?

Bush wasn't in office long enough before Enron collapsed to even approach giving Enron what it got from Clinton or receiving from Enron what Clinton and the Dems did during the previous 8 years.

As to other guys on the Enron payroll, it certainly wouldn't surpirse me if they bought Senators and Representatives in both parties.

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Since 1989, Enron has made a whopping $5.8 million in campaign donations, **73 percent to Republicans ** and 27 percent to Democrats.
…

I’m going out on a limb and saying Enron was a bit more cozy with the Repub’s.

…
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/12/politics/main324142.shtml

5

Selective reading I guess. From your source we get this:

“Of the 10 House members who received the most money from Enron, six were Democrats and most were from Texas. The top recipients were both Democrats, Rep. Ken Bentsen, with $42,750, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, with $38,000.”

Since both Senators from Texas were Republican, it makes sense that most money was contributed to Republican Senators.

But, you ignore the key point of my first post, which is WHITE HOUSE ties with Enron. I.e. where the most good could be done for Enron. Clinton and the DNC got $1 million in contributions to support Clinton’s re-election. And amongst all the other perks that Enron got from Clinton(as listed above), ** the Clinton Administration gave Enron $1 billion in taxpayer-subsidized loans. **

You can argue all you want that Bush ** would have ** given more to Enron if he had the chance. But, Enron died before he could. So we have one administration (Clinton’s) that gave and recieved and one administration (Bush’s) that received but never had the opportunity to match Clinton’s largesse.

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Is this really a "WORLD AFFAIRS" topic?

Anyway, all these acts show how the big corporations control/manipulate/bribe administrations and get a work around their malpractices/corruptions.

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MV and UTD

but hey the problem is solved, Arthur Andersen was sacrificed and public made happy...why worry about Kenneth Lay and company.

Changez, it is a world wide topic, corporate corruption and its impact is not limited to one country especially if you are talking about a multinational.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by myvoice: *

But, you ignore the key point of my first post, which is WHITE HOUSE ties with Enron. I.e. where the most good could be done for Enron. Clinton and the DNC got $1 million in contributions to support Clinton's re-election. And amongst all the other perks that Enron got from Clinton(as listed above),
[/QUOTE]

I'm not reading that Enron gave $1 million in contributions to support Clinton's re-election, where are you reading that??

It says "$1 million to the President’s political party." aka the Democratic Party thus $4.7 million to the Republican Party.