The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem." Verizon Communications is part of the Campaign to Fix the Debt as of February 2013.
Verizon is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). It has been on the corporate "Private Enterprise" board[5] and is State corporate co-chair of Virginia and Wyoming.[6] It has been a member of the ALEC Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force.[7]
ALEC's Executive Director Ronald Scheberle worked "for 31 years as a key member of the Verizon and GTE Federal and State Governmental Affairs Advocacy Team."[8]
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site