Corporate Reform: a Ship Sailing Nowhere

Watching President Bush smile for the cameras as he signed the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate responsibility bill made me think of the time a friend took a trip on a cruise ship.

Her 10-year-old son kept pestering every crew member he encountered, begging for a chance to steer the massive ocean liner. The captain finally invited the family up to the bridge, whereupon the boy grabbed the wheel and began vigorously turning it. My friend panicked--until the captain leaned over and told her not to worry, that the ship was on autopilot and that her son’s maneuvers would have no effect.

It’s the same with our leaders. They stand on the bridge making theatrical gestures they claim will steer us in a new direction, while down in the control room, the autopilot, programmed by politicians in the pocket of special interests, continues to guide the ship of state along its predetermined course.

Take the aforementioned and much-ballyhooed corporate reform law. Although it’s being presented as a big win for the public interest, corporate lobbyists actually succeeded in fighting off a whole slew of reforms: Stock options still don’t have to be treated as a business expense, offshore tax havens are still allowed, there’s been no pension fund reform and no restitution to the victims of corporate fraud.

What’s more, industry lobbyists were able to water down many of the provisions that actually made it into the bill, including those limiting--but not banning--accounting firms’ ability to consult for the companies they audit. Even those limits can be overridden by the new accounting oversight board. A few more “victories” like this and we’re going to lose the war.

It’s really pretty astounding when you think of it: With all the public outrage and media focus on corporate wrongdoing, moneyed interests are still able to undermine the public interest as our political leaders shamelessly continue dancing to their tune.

How else to explain the brazen hypocrisy exhibited by the president after last week’s ceremonial signing of the bill? Less than eight hours after warning corporate crooks, “you will be exposed,” he quietly issued an interpretation of the law undercutting a provision designed to make it easier for employees to--you got it--expose corporate crooks.

If these guys are this audacious now, I shudder to think what will be going on a few months down the line, when the media’s notoriously short attention has moved on to Iraq or Ben and J.Lo or both.

On the other hand, you can bet that corporate America--with its Energizer Bunny lobbyists and wide-open checkbooks--will still be working overtime to ensure continuation of the status quo. Over the last 10 years, corporations have doled out more than $1 billion in campaign contributions. And this down payment on public policy has extended across party lines, with $636 million going to Republicans and $449 million to Democrats.

Yet Al Gore, in his New York Times j’accuse, still had the gall to lay the blame for the current threat to “the future of democratic capitalism” squarely at the feet of Republicans “bankrolled by a new generation of special interests.” What utter claptrap.

What makes the ongoing corporate crime wave not just a business scandal but a political one is precisely the fact that there is simply no consistent institutional opposition to the corporate takeover of our politics--certainly not the Democratic Party. It was, after all, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle who blocked the stock option amendment proposed by Sen. John McCain. And all but two Democratic senators have accepted campaign contributions from WorldCom, Enron or Arthur Andersen.

No group is able to match the relentless lobbying and manipulation by corporate America. And until we have such a countervailing force--one that will storm the control room on the SS America and shut off the autopilot--we are doomed to live in a less and less democratic society.