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Bush Family Fortunes Bush and Kenneth Lay of ENRON — Transcript

by Midwest Mavericks Group - Limited · 1,788 words · 325 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00harris was clayton roberts boss and her
0:02boss was jeb bush but she also happened
0:05to be chairwoman of the bush for
0:07president campaign and successfully
0:09delivered w a victory by just 537 votes
0:15now that the votes are counted
0:17it is time for the votes to count
0:24[Music]
0:33i wish to point out
0:35that our american democracy has
0:37triumphed once again
0:39[Music]
0:44it is a special day for america it's a
0:46day in which our nation confirms the
0:49fact that we trust democracy a peaceful
0:52transfer of power
0:57thank you and may god bless america
1:05to the corporations that put him into
1:07the white house george w bush was an
1:09investment it paid off big time
1:12take that company that came up with the
1:14phony felon list choice point
1:16they got it 95 percent wrong but they
1:20didn't get the boot they got the big no
1:23bid contracts including one for 67
1:26million to help bush fight his war on
1:28terror
1:31and they weren't the only company
1:32involved in bush's election to hit the
1:35white house jackpot
1:42[Music]
1:48george w bush as governor and now as
1:50president is an absolute corporate wet
1:52dream
1:53[Music]
1:59jim hightower once the commissioner of
2:02agriculture for the state of texas is
2:04now a radio columnist from inside
2:06government and out he's tracked the bush
2:08family's mix of politics and payouts for
2:11years
2:12i'd trust a wolf to guard my last pork
2:14chop before i trust the bush eyes to
2:16guard my liberties
2:21any fantasy that the boss of a major
2:23corporation has can come true uh it just
2:26put in some money into bush's personal
2:29or political pockets
2:31[Music]
2:40looks powerful looks invincible in fact
2:43it's the gravestone here in houston of
2:45what was the largest power corporation
2:47on this planet enron
2:49here's something that caught my eye
2:52bush takes office just three days later
2:54he signs an executive order that raises
2:57the price of electricity in california
2:59nearly bankrupts that state but earns
3:01these guys billions
3:03now why would our president do that
3:06[Music]
3:12[Music]
3:17they're very loyal to each other and to
3:18those who are loyal to them they stand
3:21and deliver for those who put money into
3:24their politics or into their personal
3:26accounts hi george walker push he's
3:28signed this one but i will faithfully
3:30execute the office of president of the
3:32united states enron puts in a few
3:34hundred thousand dollars into bush's
3:35presidential campaign in the first five
3:37or six months of the administration it
3:39reaps hundreds of millions of dollars in
3:42personal benefits
3:48here's camille who's the ceo of enron he
3:50delivered hundreds of thousands of
3:52dollars to the bush campaign craig
3:54mcdonald heads texans for public justice
3:56this is the power team they hit the long
3:58ball and put you all the way in the
3:59white house
4:02the payback process is policy it's
4:04appointments and policy
4:06ken lay
4:08enron the oil cronies got exactly what
4:11they wanted out of the bush
4:12administration
4:14even before he takes the presidential
4:16oath bush forms a secret task force
4:19including enron's ken lay to rewrite
4:22america's environmental and energy laws
4:25[Music]
4:28[Applause]
4:30he put the very people who funded him in
4:32the room to devise a clean air policy
4:35they wrote the policy he enacted the
4:36policy and the policy was strictly
4:39voluntary did nothing to clean up the
4:41air yet he touted it as a major
4:43accomplishment
4:45instead of the government telling
4:47utilities where and how to cut pollution
4:50we will give them a firm deadline and
4:52let them find the most
4:53innovative ways to meet it
4:59these same funders were sick and tired
5:01of trying to play by the environmental
5:03rules and regulations george bush gave
5:05them an environmental clean air policy
5:09that any corporation would lust after
5:11[Music]
5:20how proud we are to be the number one
5:22state in the country in air pollution
5:25[Music]
5:29they took the clean air and
5:30environmental cops off the beat ken lay
5:33got almost total complete energy
5:35deregulation out of george bush
5:42[Music]
5:46what did the bush administration do
5:48it refused to impose price controls to
5:51put a cap on those utility prices
5:54meaning company like enron could set its
5:56own prices to consumers
5:58[Music]
6:03show me the money
6:05show me the money
6:07[Music]
6:09he was delivering a favor and a policy
6:12that the donors who put him in that
6:13office wanted
6:18consumers in california were being
6:19stiffed and enron was raking in hundreds
6:22of millions of dollars uh
6:24during that period uh in corrupt profits
6:27so that's a pretty good payback
6:29but enron squandered their california
6:31windfall in a series of spectacular
6:33frauds which imploded leading thousands
6:36jobless and pensioners bankrupt
6:39now george tried to downplay these links
6:41with enron's ken lay and other corrupt
6:44bosses
6:45by far the vast majority of ceos in
6:48america are good honorable honest people
6:50in the corporate world
6:52sometimes things aren't exactly black
6:54and white when it comes to accounting
6:55procedures and the sec's job is to
6:58resist it is to look
7:00and it's to determine
7:02whether or not uh
7:04whether or not uh
7:08whether or not the decision by the
7:10auditors was the appropriate decision
7:13ken lay
7:14whom george w
7:16fondly called kenny boy was the major
7:19campaign contributor to george w bush
7:22and they exchanged christmas cards with
7:24each other
7:25ken lay was very personal very close
7:28uh with the bush family i do know that
7:30uh
7:31mr lay came to the white house and early
7:34in my administration along with uh
7:36i think 20 other
7:38business leaders cut to discuss the
7:40state of the economy which is kind of a
7:41general discussion i have not met with
7:42him personally
7:44i've gotten my hands on a video of an
7:46enron retirement party for one of ken
7:48lay's colleagues it stars both
7:51presidents bush more than happy to see a
7:53few encouraging words for their family's
7:55top campaign contributors
7:58you have been fantastic to the bush
8:00family
8:01i don't think anybody did more than you
8:03did to support george don't leave texas
8:06you're too good a man
8:08i appreciate your service to our great
8:09state
8:10i look forward to working with you to
8:11make texas a better place
8:14good luck in anything you do
8:16you're a good texan
8:18[Music]
8:22capitol hill austin texas it's here
8:25where george w made the deals that got
8:28him into the white house and where he
8:29learned his own particular brand of
8:31politics texas style
8:33[Music]
8:35when the deals go down texas gentlemen
8:38sometimes don't like to get their hands
8:40dirty with the details for that they
8:42have hired guns
8:44the political lobbyists
8:48across from the capitol i found one of
8:50ken lay's former lobbyist andrew nick
8:52williams
8:53she and her husband sell their political
8:55connections to the texas corporate elite
8:57they also rounded up over 100 000 in
9:00contributions for george w bush's
9:03presidential campaign
9:06[Music]
9:14if every person in the united states
9:17could meet president bush
9:20they would understand why we have the
9:22level of support personally that we do
9:26for the president he is an honest
9:29equitable hard-working man and that's
9:32why we've supported him unequivocally
9:35and i think he's doing a fabulous job
9:44across the hall to meet another lobbyist
9:47nick crowl invited me into the back room
9:49to show me a different view of the
9:51influence game
9:52nice to see you yeah great so come on in
9:54yeah great want to talk to you ah yeah
9:58why not
10:00yeah we don't want you to speak out of
10:01it
10:02all right
10:07cheers
10:10damn fine whiskey
10:12now do you ever use that as a mechanism
10:15for uh getting what you want the second
10:18most important well third most important
10:20tool in politics well what are the
10:22others guns and what
10:24money's probably number one but
10:25whiskey's a close second what's third
10:28love i guess
10:35you have a few enemies here
10:37sure
10:38i'm a minority i'm a democrat
10:41an endangered species that's right
10:45[Music]
10:47the simple process of getting things
10:49done in texas how important is cash
10:52in getting legislation through
10:55well it's the fuel of politics i mean
10:58that's how you get people that identify
11:00with your views elected
11:02it is probably unseemly in many ways
11:04because texas is unlike a lot of
11:06places there's no limit if you're
11:08running for
11:10a house seat i could give you
11:12100 200 i could give you as much 100 200
11:15000 as much money as i want and
11:16obviously that's going to have some
11:18effect on
11:20how you treat me
11:24say come on now you are representing
11:26guys like and rondo you're saying that
11:28these companies make that type of
11:29investment and don't expect a return
11:32i think some of the donors that you're
11:34speaking of
11:36and there's a long list that have
11:38traditionally given to what they feel
11:40like are business friendly candidates
11:42and those donors don't necessarily
11:45look for any sort of quid pro quo other
11:47than
11:49the candidates ideology that they're
11:52supporting they know will help
11:54help change the the business environment
11:57or the climate for the better what i
11:59would say about president bush is that
12:03there there is no way
12:05giving to someone like him is going to
12:07influence his decision there's no quid
12:09pro quo
12:10sounds like [ __ ] to me
12:14so this is kind of the wild west of
12:16campaign contributions it is the wild
12:18west is this a
12:2245 i don't know if there are any other
12:25states that have this
12:27uh
12:28liberal
12:29campaign contribution unlimited you can
12:32give a million if you want to give a
12:33million or you can get whatever
12:36because the whole saying money talks and
12:37[ __ ] walks
12:41and money talks very politely to the
12:43bush family not just the campaign cash
12:45for george w brother jeb there was the
12:48billion dollars the us treasury pumped
12:50into brother neal's bank silverado and
12:52there's brother marvin his investment
12:55funds are fattening on contracts for the
12:57war on terror and poppy bush senior
13:00became the first ex-president to trade
13:03his oval office connections for cash
13:06[Music]
13:08the bushes are like other american
13:09dynasties
13:10the kennedys the rockefellers
13:13they made their millions and bought
13:14their way into political office the
13:16bushes do the same but with a twist
13:19they've taken the game to a whole other
13:22level
13:22see the money gets them office then the
13:25office gets them even more money
13:28call it the bush cycle
13:31and it's still rolling along
13:33[Music]
13:42[Music]
13:50i went to speak to a man who'd witnessed
13:52the bush family's uncanny ability to
13:54turn government service into cash he
13:56occupied an inside seat in the
13:58washington spook world during the reagan
14:00bush administration former national
14:03security agency

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