I'm in D.C. right now, about to hand over our petition to get money out of politics to Senator Dick Durbin. It's fitting I'm in D.C. to do this today, because a jobs report just came out showing that our politics can not solve our unemployment problem.
Apparently, this month, America added a little over 100,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remained flat, and the broader unemployment rate jumped to 16.5 percent. These numbers indicate that America cannot employ the 30 million people who want to work, who want to put their collective energy and personhood towards something of meaning. It's telling Americans they are trash. Americans do not like hearing that message from their government, and they are making that point loud and clear in roiling protests all over the country. This is heartening to say the least; I've been wandering and experiencing our country come alive, from Zuccotti Park and the Occupy Wall Street protests. And what we all want is to end bought government, to build a shared alignment of our values in a wave of energy.
The contrast to D.C. could not be clearer. Earlier this week, President Obama and Congress decided to kill a couple hundred thousand American jobs to help big money interests, by passing three corporate trade bills. He's doing this even as protests wrack the country, and as our very culture speaks back. This week, for instance, Sesame Street decided to introduce a new character suffering from poverty and hunger so part of their audience of children can see someone like them. Imagine that -- protests in the streets, children being told it's normal to be hungry, and a president and Congress focused meanwhile on shipping jobs elsewhere.
Amazing. But understandable. This is the result of a bought government.
How, exactly, is this working? How is this system depriving us of what we need? It's simple -- the cash speaks, the people don't.
Let's start with trade. NAFTA-style free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama are now "fast-tracked," and should end up passing at some point next week. Just the Korean deal alone will kill 156,000 jobs. The Panama deal will enable corporations to hide revenue from taxation and regulation, and the Colombia deal is about ensuring there is yet another low-cost production zone with no labor rights. These deals are supported most prominently by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest spender of anonymous cash in the 2010 elections.
Beyond these mini-NAFTAs lies a trans-Pacific trade deal that is already threatening the lives of people around the world. This one's at the behest of big pharma, which has its own stake in our government. No one has credibly analyzed this trade framework yet, but I'm pretty sure that anything within the existing free trade axis isn't going to be helping us find jobs.
Again, bought government. The campaign cash comes from corporate interests, and they get what they want.
What about the public? What is it that we don't see when we allow a bought government to run wild?
Sesame Street introduces new characters periodically as the culture changes. Today's new character is named Lily. Her family suffers from what's called "food insecurity," otherwise known as hunger (a scourge which costs America $167 billion a year). That's how many children are going hungry in modern America, that Sesame Street must feature a hungry character to stay relevant.
This too comes back to money. Food stamps were the original mechanism to deal with hunger, as a government program, they helped end hunger domestically. Senator George McGovern in the 1970s realized that hunger was a massive problem, and used a Senate select committee to research, publicize, and solve the problem. There was no donor base behind the hunger problem, but Congress has a structure that allowed it to diagnose problems felt by Americans, and deal with them. Food stamps and school lunches, not Sesame Street, were how Congress used to tackle the problem of children having nutritional deficiencies.
And what about today? Aside from corporate trade deals, what is Congress doing to solve today's most pressing issues. Well, Congress is spending its time... forming caucuses to support Predator Drones. Yes, there's a Predator drone caucus whose mission is to acquire more drones as quickly as possible and deploy them anywhere, even against protesters at the political conventions this summer. Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems are quite happy to buy Congress to sell more of their product. In the predator drone caucus is the Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Committee, Norm Dicks. Prior to the Republican takeover of the House, he held the position Jack Murtha held, on the subcommittee made famous by Tom Hanks in Charlie Wilson's War. His subcommittee dispenses hundreds of billions of dollars. And they say we have no industrial policy!
We get no jobs. We get hungry children. And we get drones spying on protesters. That's bought government for you.
I could go on. I could talk about banking policy, and the way that banks fund politicians to ensure that they face no real threat from regulators. Or how the Bush administration destroyed the anti-trust section of the Justice Department, and the Obama administration hasn't been able to really repair it. Or the Keystone pipeline and oil, in which former a Hillary Clinton for President staffer lobbied colleagues at the State Department at the behest of the pipeline company TransCanada.
But you get the point. Money has simply overwhelmed our political system. And the protests we're seeing, the national convulsion of frustration against corruption, are a result.
After all, if our government-corporate elites can't ensure that we as a society feed hungry children, then why would any of us expect that we would ensure there are enough jobs? We have a bought government, and a bought government isn't very interested in making sure you have a job, or a child has a meal.
After I finish my day in D.C., after I let Senator Durbin know that people want an end to this corrupt system, I'm going to Zuccotti Square again, because it is only in building waves of energy, of human dedication to ending our collective inaction, can we move forward to get money out. And then maybe we will get the jobs we so desperately need.
Follow Dylan Ratigan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DylanRatigan
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Dylan Ratigan: Get Money Out: Join 100000 Americans
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Dylan Ratigan starts campaign to get money out of politics | Raw ...
Sent to MoveOn:
To advance the assumed aims of the 99% movement, there should be a NATIONAL DAY FOR PUBLIC FINANCING OF ELECTIONS. Every Congressional office on that day should be presented with a petition (http://www.getmoneyout.com/) and a demand that the congressperson PLEDGE to either back public financing or state that they will not. We should be doing Grover Norquist one better in the "pledge" department. Two can play the game. MoveOn should help assure that there is an opponent in the 2012 elections to every Congressperson who will not pledge to support public financing, even if it is going to take a Constitutional Amendment. CORPORATE INFLUENCE IN WASHINGTON IS THE TOP PRIORITY!
It is the false belief that healthy businesses mean a healthy society (that what is good for GM is good for the country). And the false belief that "free" trade is really free, and as though it helps societies as opposed to mostly just helping corporations. We don't see that it is a race to the bottom.
it would be our recommendation to reconsider the proposed amendment or at least offer those supporting the concept of a constitutional amendment for campaign reform the option of choosing between the available amendment concepts. Unless it is important to stamp a personality or to control the direction of this movement is hard to understand why there is no acknowledgment of pre-existing organizations and ideas particularly when there are demonstrably superior.
You can sign up to support our amendment and become a part of our movement here: http://www.renewdemocracy.org/support
The Get Money Out proposed amendment only addresses federal elections because the bureaucracy involved in federal financing of state and local elections would be tremendous. Much of the government that voters face in their daily lives is state and local and so to ignore these elections and campaign reform is an inexcusable flaw.
.http://www.renewdemocracy.org/modules/resources/files/1441/Campaign%20Contribution%20Limits.pdf
The Get Money Out proposed amendment does not address the fact that the American voter does not have a constitutional right to vote. This fact is well addressed by the largest and most supported organization in this field Move to Amend http://movetoamend.org
. Any proposed constitutional amendment addressing voter rights and campaign reform should include a constitutional guarantee of the right to vote.
Here is the Renew Democracy Amendment or RDA that we propose on the site http://www.renewdemocracy.org
The right of the individual qualified citizen voter to participate in all pertinent local, state, and federal elections shall not be questioned and the right to vote is limited to individuals. The right to contribute to political campaigns and political parties is held solely by individual citizens. Political campaign contributions shall not exceed an amount reasonably affordable by the average American. The rights of all groups, associations and organizations to other political speech may be regulated by Congress but only as to volume and not content and only to protect the right of the individual voter’s voice to be heard.
You can sign up to support our amendment and become a part of our movement here: http://www.renewdemocracy.org/support
I hope Get Money Out goes viral!!
Cut out the two wars, initiate the Green INDUSTRY, Stop flying drones every place, and prosecute Wall Street. Term Limits, Line item veto, no Corporate financing of political agendas. Redo all trade treaties and make them fair to the US. Repair the infrastructure. It is a shame what has been done to this Country. It is a shame what has been done in our names. All Americans need to stand up and say it ends now. Throw them all out.
Or, that pesky "redistribution of wealth" some people keep harping on.
How're those wheel of fortune loans, mortgage payments and investments coming along?
Hey I have an idea. Let's move Wall Street to Las Vegas--at least people will know what kind of company they're putting their money into.
Reagan served to turn this country around 90 degrees and now my country's standards are trashed and from what I've observed in my lifetime we're replacing them with turn of the century standards.
Who's at fault for the debt problem - the banks that made bad loans or the people who foolishly took the loans and got over their head? Every contract has two parties.
Who's to blame for legislative stalemate and partisanship - the legislators who pander to the public, the public who elects them, or the media who loves to sell conflict and controversy?
These issues aren't easy, and everyone has to look in the mirror.
The answer to the jobs problem is extremely simple. Quit buying foreign made products, and the corporations won't produce them for U.S. consumption. It doesn't make sense to save $50 bucks on a TV or new hand tool if it jeapardizes your job and puts downward pressure on your wages. You stand to lose a lot more than you gain. Even the people with jobs could lose them. Nobody is immune.
The money in politics is a more difficult problem because legislators will never change their ways. You can get rid of the current legislators, but the new people that are elected will play the same game. The grass roots push for a constitutional amendment is the only way to make this change. Thanks to Dylan for pushing this.
We don't make that much in America any more. We bail out GM and they boast of their German engines in the new models. Chrysler sent a mini van to Europe and got it fixed up and now you can buy one too! The Government and the Corporations are ruining America and maybe they have taken it to the point where it won't get fixed. Take to the streets, stop the government and the corporations.
I applaud your courage in deciding to use the bully pulpit you have acquired to focus attention on the country’s number one problem which is money in politics and as you put it bought government. Eradicating monetized influence, meaningful campaign finance reform and overturning the Citizens United ruling will not solve all of our other problems but it will make solving them possible. The system we have now is really nothing more or less than legalized bribery and changing it to preclude the purchase of access and influence to and with government officials is our only hope of saving this nation.
I have been ringing this bell for a long time as my previous comments will show but your ability to gather and influence a large number of like minded voices will enable us to reach a critical mass of people who see and understand the need to do something other than sit quietly by and allow it to continue. With confidence that you will stay strong and keep putting out the message I am inspired to hope we can achieve meaningful change in a positive manner.
I might suggest that you get the honchos and your peers at MSNBC to get on board and help drive this renewal of the American spirit deep into the heart of the public consciousness. In order to succeed it will require a groundswell of public opinion and big demonstrations and activism on the part of a majority of the people.
Universal Health Care Coverage
My proposal regarding health care is to give everyone over
the age of 18 a bank account that has, perhaps, $5,000 in it,
to be used for medical purposes. $1,000 is for preventative
measures and $4,000 for all other medical expenses. At the
end of each year, any unspent funds remaining of the $4,000
portion are paid to that individual as a “cash rebate.” Anything
above $5,000 would be covered by a form of Medicare. There
would be no restrictions on purchasing private insurance
policies.
This proposal provides for universal health care,
maximizes choice, employs competitive market forces to
minimize costs, frees up physician time previously spent
in discussion with insurance companies, rewards “good
behavior” and reduces insurance company participation.
This will greatly reduce demands on the medical system,
substantially increasing the supply of available doctor/patient
time and makes sure all Americans have health care. To
ensure preventative measures are taken, the year-end rebate
can be dependent, for example, on the individual getting an
annual check up. And though it is federally funded, it can be
administered by the states, which could also set standards
and requirements.
The above excerpted from "The Seven Deadly Inocent Frauds"
By Warren Mosler.
Cut the Defense Budget by 300Billion per year. Have our troops here helping with this country's needs first and foremost.
In 10 years time we have than saved over 4 Trillion Dollars alone. That savings would allow us to fix America, which people can say what they want but this, OUR Country is sick and hurting.
Take to the Streets and let your voice be heard before. The games and the polititions need to be replaced on the Federal level. The Congress, The Whits House, and the Supreme Court. They are all sick, while we are all tired. Sick and tired dose not do well together. We the People have been fleeced!.....bc