Who is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)?

And why should we care? Turns out it’s a pretty big deal:

Lawmakers pay a small fee to join ALEC, which calls itself an educational non-profit.
ALEC receives massive contributions from major corporations for promotion.
In return, ALEC organizes lavish junkets for member lawmakers (which are called “scholarships”) where they promote their clients’ ideas.
At the same time, ALEC writes model legislation at the request of those corporations, and they currently have hundreds of bills that are being followed, some verbatim, all over the country.

As an example, AZ State Sen. Russell Pearce discussed his ideas for Arizona’s controversial immigration bill at an ALEC conference, in the room with the largest private prison company, who then shifted their business focus onto detaining illegal immigrants. All of ALEC’s efforts involve attacking working people, consumer rights, and voting.

In their own words: “ALEC provides you with sound policies and resolutions that offer limited-government free-market solutions for your state. ALEC is pleased to present its new model legislation that was recently introduced at the 2011 Spring Task Force Summit.”

To see what laws your state is considering that were drafted by ALEC, visit alecexposed.org.

#politics #liberal #p2 #democratic #alec #teaparty