Wealthy manipulate legislation with payments

Title: Kerry Blocked Law, Drew Cash
Source: ABC News
Date: February 5, 2004

From the article:

John Kerry intervened in the Senate to keep open a loophole that had allowed a major insurer to divert millions of federal dollars from the nation's most expensive construction project, then received tens of thousand of dollars in donations from the company during the next two years, documents show.

American International Group paid Kerry's way on a trip to Vermont and donated at least $30,000 to a tax-exempt group Kerry used to set up his presidential campaign. Company executives also donated $18,000 to his Senate and presidential campaigns, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

This is a classic tactic for the wealthy:

• A wealthy corporation diverts millions of dollars from a federally funded project.
• An investigation reveals the fraud and legislation is proposed to punish the perpetrator and end the fraud.
• The corporation provides thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to get the legislation changed or eliminated.
• Taxpayers end up paying for it.