Ninety-seven cents of every dollar the Civitas Institute spends comes from Art Pope via the Pope Foundation, according to a new report by Facing South. So does four dollars out of every five that John Hood and the John Locke Foundation spend to promote the Art Pope brand of me-first, libertarian conservatism. This is the second of two reports by the Institute for Southern Studies’ Facing South blog; the other report described Pope’s funding of political attacks in North Carolina through a Civitas affiliate and other entities. Nationally, spending on political ads by business front groups, unions, and billionaires has more than doubled since the last mid-term election, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.  The impact is a dagger to the heart of democracy, says Bill Moyers, not the blessing of free enterprise, as Mr. Pope or the Gilded Age’s Mark Hanna would have us believe.

Continuing the theme from the last couple of days, the Institute for Southern Studies has an eye-popping feature about Art Pope. Among other nuggets: Pope basically owns the Civitas Institute, the source of those so-called non-biased polls you see in the press; an amazing 99% of Civitas’ income comes from Pope through his foundation! Pope’s money is paid out monthly, keeping the operation on a short leash. Pope’s foundation is also the second largest institutional donor to Americans for Prosperity. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the brash maneuverings of selfish billionaires, fear not: The Onion reports you, the public, have a new advocate in Washington. Happy viewing.

Wilmington businessman Rusty Carter got slapped with a $100,000 fine today for funneling illegal contributions to state politicians. The Associated Press story describes what happened at the State Board of Elections meeting and references the letter Democracy North Carolina sent in June, urging the Board to assess a hefty penalty against Carter for his actions. There’s more about the case in our LINKS for June 22 and May 5, 2010.

The New York Times exposes the simple function of Americans for Job Security: serve as a front for corporations and business owners with a political agenda “to sidestep campaign disclosure rules.” It is set up as a 501(c)(6) trade association with members paying “dues” that are often one-time payments for attack-ad campaigns against specific politicians or referendum issues. AJS is spending more than $2 million in ads attacking US Reps. Larry Kissell, Bobby Etheridge and Heath Shuler, all Democrats. The 501(c)(6) tax-code classification allows the group to avoid disclosing the identify of any of its “members,” and at least some of them likely treat their “dues” as a business expense that they deduct from their personal or corporation’s taxable income. That means they reduce their tax bill by over $150,000 for every $500,000 they spend on attack ads, so the net cost to them is $350,000. It’s an odd form of publicly subsidized campaign financing that is helping fuel a corporate takeover of elections. As AJS’s ads become more direct in calling for the defeat of candidates, rather than just smearing them via “issue ads,” the donors should lose any tax benefits, but a Federal Elections Commission ruling still allows plenty of ways for AJS’s donors to remain anonymous.

Update on yesterday’s post: As another benefit from the federal health care reform law, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina announced it will refund $155.8 million to about 215,000 individual Blue Advantage policyholders in the state – or about $690 for the typical customer. In more good news, NC Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin successfully pushed Blue Cross to accept a 23% lower rate increase than it sought. The negotiated 5.37% increase is the lowest hike from Blue Cross in the past four years. Importantly, candidates for NC Insurance Commissioner can opt into a public campaign financing program. Goodwin got only about 5% of his campaign money in 2008 from insurance industry-related donors, compared to the 66% share supplied to his predecessor who had no public option for his campaign. Yesterday’s LINK also referred to the health-care money taken in by NC members of Congress. A report by the News & Observer includes an updated list of the top industries donating to Richard Burr’s campaign: three of his top four are related to health care providers, pharmaceuticals and the insurance industry.

Contrary to the right-wing cry to “get government off my back,” the NC Council of Churches and the national coalition, Faithful Reform in Health Care, point out that government can help people solve problems. The coalition released a list of nine new benefits that begin this week because of the federal health care reform law. Families The substantial changes come about despite the millions spent by the insurance and health-care industry on lobbying and campaign donations to block reform. As Democracy NC research shows, there’s a strong correlation between the members of Congress who got the most money and the ones who side with the industry against consumers, with Sen. Richard Burr leading the NC list. The Faithful Reform coalition makes plain which side it’s on: “As people of faith, we envision a society where each person is afforded health, wholeness, and human dignity. This vision embraces a system of health care that is inclusive, accessible, affordable, and accountable.”

On this Labor Day, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich succinctly describes how Americans are working longer hours for less pay while the benefits of increased productivity flow to the top 1%; this distorted distribution of the wealth we create means consumers don’t have the money to buy what the economy is capable of producing, and the grandiose expectations of the super-rich promote manipulative investments and political deals that eventually crash. We’re stuck in the Great Recession, says Reich, until we have reforms at least as radical as those used during the Great Depression. It’s worth noting that 1% of the population contributes about 90% of the campaign contributions to politicians. That’s our finding from various studies at Democracy North Carolina and no doubt it holds true elsewhere. For the sake of our economy, our jobs, our future, we need more political leaders who don’t depend on the narrow-minded super-rich.