Gingrich made big bucks pushing corporate welfare

[cal04]

by Timothy P. Carney
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/gingrich-made-big-bucks-pushing-corporate-welfare

Newt Gingrich spent the last decade being paid by big business to convince conservatives to support big-government policies that would profit his clients.

Gingrich's consulting firm racked up $1.6 million in fees from the government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac, we learned this week from Bloomberg News. Gingrich's job was to help Freddie Mac win over conservatives to this market-distorting, bubble-fueling, housing-subsidy entity, which is now officially owned by the federal government.

We also know that Growth Energy, an ethanol lobby, paid $312,500 to the Gingrich Group in 2009, according to the group's tax filing. Growth Energy lobbies to preserve many ethanol subsidies and create new ones. Gingrich has consistently supported ethanol subsidies, despite his professed allegiance to the free market.

But there may be much more to Gingrich's advocacy work than has been reported so far. For instance, a former employee of the nation's biggest drug lobby told me Gingrich was being paid by the drug industry during the 2003 debate over the Medicare prescription drug benefit.

[No Joe]

1. Eyes without a Face =

Recs without a Kick. ;-)