This month's issue of Mother Jones documents how DINO Majority Leader Harry Reid is in bed with the mining industry. In January, we talked about the seating of Ronald Burris; however, it turns out that the reality was much worse than I thought -- it seems Reid is clueless about the Senate. In December, we talked about the long range of issues that we had with Harry Reid, including the cave-in to Lieberman and the various cave-ins that ocurred under the Bush administration. In November, we talked about the lovefest that he held for convicted felon Ted Stevens.
Specifically, Harry Reid has presided over one of the biggest corporate welfare heists in this country's history -- it turns out that the mining industry has stolen $400+ billion of taxpayer dollars without ever having to pay for restoring federal lands that they had gutted after they were done mining the lands. And in a blatant conflict of interest, it turns out that Harry Reid owns several such defunct mining companies and his sons have financial interests in several others. In other words, Harry Reid is not working for the common good. He is in it for the benefit of himself.
Coal, oil, and gas companies, as the article notes, have to kick back anywhere from 8 to 17% of their revenues back to the government annually. But thanks to Harry Reid and his cronies, the mining industry doesn't have to kick back any. And then, people wonder why so many people are calling on the government to forgive all college student loans. If we could pass a law requiring mining companies to pay their fair share like the other industries, then we would have money to forgive student loans and then set up scholarship funds for where the need is greatest.
And how deep are Reid's mining connections?
But Reid's ties to mining run deeper than his sentimental connection to his rough-and-tumble origins. His sons Rory and Leif work for law firms that represent mining companies. Since 1999, his son-in-law, Steven Barringer, has earned as much as $3.7 million lobbying for mining interests including Barrick Gold, though he does not lobby Reid directly. Reid's natural resources staffer, Neil Kornze, is the son of a geologist who discovered Barrick's Betze deposit outside Elko. Since 1994, mining interests have donated more than $269,000 to Reid, including at least $82,000 from Barrick and its employees. Any suggestion, however, that these links have swayed Reid is "an attempt to draw a conclusion that would be inaccurate," says his spokesman Jon Summers. (Reid declined to be interviewed for this article.) Yeah, sure... -- EH
Reid's relationship with the mining industry is a fiercely guarded piece of political capital. Though Reid has a solid base in expanding urban areas such as Las Vegas and Reno, he has had to fight for votes in conservative rural areas. Part of the problem is his environmental record: Reid has opposed road building in national forests and supported setting aside 5.6 million acres in southern Nevada to protect the threatened desert tortoise. His 1998 reelection bid was opposed by the anti-environmentalist Wise Use movement; he won by just 428 votes. In 2001, when Bush moved to quash mining regulations put in place by the Clinton administration, Reid saw an opportunity to mend fences back home. "President Bush can't be wrong all the time," he said. In 2003, prominent Nevada Republicans endorsed his reelection bid, and he won by a comfortable margin.
And his recent activities show that he is more in bed with the mining industry than ever:
As Reid's profile rose, he didn't soften his pro-mining stance. In 2004, he moved to slash the capital gains tax on collectible precious metals, reduced the already paltry $125 annual fee for maintaining a mining claim on federal land, and convinced Sen. John Kerry to drop a proposal for $600 million in new mining taxes. After becoming Senate minority leader, he pressed the International Monetary Fund to limit gold sales (which are a drag on gold prices) and pushed the US Mint to produce more gold coins (a price booster). "I suspect that whatever he decides is good for mining is going to be on the table," says Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association.
The 2006 Democratic congressional sweep put mining reform back on the agenda. When the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a hearing in Elko in August 2007, Reid pledged his support for "real and reasonable reform." Two months later, the House passed the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act, nearly identical to the Clinton-era version except for imposing a royalty of 4 percent on existing mines and 8 percent on new ones. The mining watchdog Earthworks called it "a huge step towards requiring responsible mining practices on public lands." But majority leader Reid, in a column coauthored with Nevada Republicans Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Dean Heller in the Reno Gazette-Journal, said the bill was "not something Nevada can accept."
And the damage to families and peoples' lives has been immense. At least hundreds of families have had to shut their tap water off thanks to mines leaking and contaminating drinking water. The rules are stacked in favor of the mining industry and show a crass disrespect to other interests such as Native American burial sites and the long-term environmental picture. And as the article notes, Reid has stood idly by as Bush has rolled back some of the few rules in place governing the mining industry.
And there is something gallingly similar to what happened during the boom and bust years of the Bush administration and the Hoover administration. Herbert Hoover, George Bush, and Harry Reid have promoted the notion that if we just have faith, we too can make it rich. Reid's faith that Searchlight can somehow strike it rich again is just as misplaced as the many people who fall for the Nigerian oil scams or the UK Lottery scams that come across our e-mail boxes every day.
In fact, as the article concludes, Reid is in the warm spiderhole of denial given the fact that the science says that Nevada will run out of gold reserves in 20 years. It's too bad that Reid did not use his clout to prepare his constituents for life after gold. His life is that of a coward who is too scared to stand up to the mining industry even though it has fleeced taxpayers out of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.
I submit that there are many other Senators in the Senate who are far more progressive than DINO Majority Leader Harry Reid. New on the list is Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, who has been one of the leaders in calling for ethical reform in Washington and a key Obama ally in pushing for change.