Wow. They have really got this racket down to a science. Taxpayers are NOW paying ALEC to screw them.
And one of ALEC's best success stories is Texas. Not only have dozens of bills drafted at the organization's events shaped bills passed in Austin, but taxpayers have also helped underwrite the group's efforts to influence the Legislature. More than half the members of the Texas Legislature have ties to ALEC, and most used public money to pay dues or other costs stemming from their memberships. In the House alone, members have tapped more than $125,000 from taxpayer-funded accounts since 2010 to pay ALEC dues and attend ALEC events, according to a Star-Telegram analysis of state records.
The conferences are touted as productive meetings of state legislators and business executives. But critics call the events little more than lobbying junkets where corporate representatives help write bills for lawmakers to take home and try to get passed.
Arrogant SOB who sees nothing wrong with allowing wealthy special interests to buy and pervert democracy:
"I'm so tired of all that stuff," said state Rep. Jim Jackson, R-Carrollton, the ALEC state chairman. "A lot of people have influence on me. Nobody owns me. It very well may be that some of the programs I've gone to at ALEC ... have had some influence on me, but ALEC has never attempted to dictate to me, nor would they."
Though organizations of just about every political persuasion promote "model bills" in hopes that states will adopt them, watchdogs have focused on ALEC because of its outsize success with that approach and because of the corporate interests that largely fund the organization and are positioned to potentially benefit from passage of the measures.
This is absolutely a sickening disgrace. ALEC and their little minions think their money entitles them to run the world and the rest of us can just go to hell.