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Two tribes paid $50K to attend White House meeting
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Correction: The two tribes *and* two corporate sponsors paid a total of $100,000. The Choctaws, like the Coushattas, only paid $25,000.
The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians paid a total of $50,000 to attend a White House meeting with President George W. Bush, The Texas Observer reports.
The Coushattas paid $25,000 and the Choctaws paid $75,000. The money went to Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax group headed by Grover Norquist, a Republican activist with close ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House.
Outgoing Coushatta Chairman Lovelin Poncho initially denied attending a "one-on-one" meeting with Bush. But his signature appeared on a check to ATR and he later recalled that he went to the White House where "Bush made some general comments about Indian policy but did not discuss Indian gaming," The Observer reports.
Get the Story:
The Pimping of the President
(The Texas Observer 6/7)
Relevant Links:
Americans for Tax Reform -
http://www.atr.org
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