Corporate Power Decried By Former Lawmaker

Former Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) spoke candidly about the relationship between large corporations and government, admitting, "Because [corporations] have become so international and global in nature, it's highly questionable whether governments can actually control corporations to a sufficient degree to prevent them from controlling governments."

One of the most worrying examples of the increasing ungovernability of corporations is the current push to allow corporations that have been stashing capital overseas to bring it back to the U.S. at a rate as low as 5 percent, argued Kanjorksi, who served for 26 years in the House of Representatives before being ousted last year. A coalition of tech firms, drug companies, energy conglomerates and lobbying front-groups are pushing Congress to pass a tax holiday bill.

"The reality is, why should we be bargaining with super-national corporations who are actually acting against our interest in avoidance of what our law is? We are impotent to get them to respond."

Kanjorski was speaking from experience. The district he represented has long been neglected by corporate America. Home to the small cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, the 11th District of Pennsylvania was a significant manufacturing hub for much of the 20th century, but firms shipped most of those jobs elsewhere decades ago, leaving the region struggling economically well before the financial crash of 2008 devastated the national labor market.

Read Rep. Kanjorski's interview with the Huffington Post, 8/26/2011.