I Am So Glad We Defeated Harris Miller

by: lowkell

Mon Apr 25, 2011 at 17:12:34 PM EDT

Some of the largest publicly traded college corporations receive nearly 90 percent of their revenues from federal student aid programs. While government money fuels increased enrollments and record profits, the industry has poured increasing amounts of those proceeds into an unprecedented effort to preempt the rules through greater influence in Washington.

In other words, an industry that derives a vast majority of its revenue from federal funding is actively using that money to fight government efforts for accountability.

The last-minute scramble earlier this month was only the latest chapter in the industry's yearlong battle against increased federal oversight of their schools.

Overall, the industry spent more than $8.1 million on lobbying in 2010, up from $3.3 million in 2009, according to a Huffington Post analysis of lobbying data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

[...]

...[Harris Miller] downplayed the importance that political contributions play in changing policy, pointing to the donations to many who have actively opposed the industry.

"I know some people like to think there's this simplistic correlation between writing a check and getting a vote," he said. "I wish it were that easy."

Just as bad, by the way, is the fact that Hararis Miller has hired on the "got cash, we'll represent you, no question asked!" Podesta Group (sampling of clients: BP, Wal-Mart, "Clean Coal," Duke Energy, and Egypt under Husni Mubarak) and the utterly execrable Lanny Davis (activities include support for "the Latin American equivalent of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce," "defending the Honduran military authorities' removal of President Zelaya from power in the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis," providing public relations support to "Ivory Coast leader and flagrant human rights violator Laurent Gbagbo" as well as "Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the longtime dictator of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea"). Anyway, it's completely unsurprising that the for-profit "education" cesspool, which specializes in ripping off taxpayers, poor people and veterans, would fit right into Podesta's and Davis' client portfolio, and also that Harris Miller would take to those two like pigs in s***.