Over a year ago, we suffered the most significant financial collapse since the Great Depression, and the result of that is massive unemployment and underemployment. People lost their savings. People lost their homes. Now, despite the greed and illegal behavior of Wall Street, there is a massive effort to make sure that Congress does nothing about it. You know what? That might end up being the result.
How does it happen that Wall Street was able to convince Congress to deregulate their industry, to be in a position to bring the economy down? How does it happen that they are able to fend off serious efforts in Congress to try to re-regulate the financial institutions to protect the American people? Here's the answer: In the last 10 years, Wall Street and big financial institutions have spent over $5 billion in campaign contributions and in lobbying activities. It doesn't matter whether you are a Democrat or a Republican; if you have any influence they are going to go after you.
How is it that we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs? How does that happen that we are the only country on earth that doesn't in one way or another regulate the cost of drugs to prevent the reality that when you walk into the drug store tomorrow the price you are paying may in fact be doubled. It may have something to do with the fact that since 1998 the pharmaceutical industry has spent over $1.6 billion on lobbying and they employ over 1,100 lobbyists -- more than two lobbyists for every member of Congress.
What about health care? How is it that we are the only country in the industrialized world that does not have a national health care plan guaranteeing health care to all people? How is it that in the health care bill that's now being debated in the Finance Committee the private insurance companies and the drug companies are doing pretty well? Might it have something to do with the fact that since 1990, the health care industry has spent over $850 million dollars in campaign contributions?
Why is it that we have record breaking defense budgets despite the end of the Cold War? Well, over the last decade the defense industry has spent more than $447 million on lobbying and made $144 million in campaign contributions.
Big Oil is the same story. Exxon-Mobil makes record-breaking profits. Working people pay very high prices at the gas pump. Do you think that has something to do that the oil and gas industry has spent more than $830 million dollars on lobbying and $240 million in campaign contributions over the past two decades?
On and on it goes. The reality of Washington, to a very significant degree, is that those people who have the money are able to influence public policy. Big money controls the agenda. If you don't have the money, you get to the end of the line.
That's the reality today. It could get worse. Right now, the Supreme Court is considering a case that could be used to open the coffers of all the big corporations to directly fund campaign ads in this country. So you would not just be dealing with political action committees and lobbyists, you would have to deal with the treasuries of large corporations.
This is a huge issue. The antidote, in my view, is public funding of elections so that everybody has the opportunity to run for office without having to be beholden to powerful special interests. We have begun to see progress at the statewide level. But if you are concerned about public policy in general in this country, health care, the environment, whatever it may be, we have got to pay attention to the power of big money.
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Robert Kuttner: It's the Unemployment, Stupid
If unemployment keep rising, the GOP is primed to pick up dozens of seats in the House, crippling the Obama administration's capacity to recoup in a second term.
The winner-takes-all system is an effective brake on any 3rd party.
A proportional election system is much more modern and much more fair.
If you live in an republican area, it doesn't matter whether you vote or not. In a proportional system the minority votes are collected and can be used to support state- or nationwide candidates.
In Denmark we have 7 parties in parliament, and it works fine. The smallest party has about 2% of the votes and the largest about 30%. No party has had a majority for more than a century, and the parties are publicy funded. Of course you can also support privately, but you have to register your donations over a certain size.
Funny enough we have both a thriving economy, a single payer public health care system, low unemployment and a GNP pc. larger than that of the USA.
Acually it works, and the participation in the elections is about 85-90%
So try it. It could maybe renew the political life.
Where are the masses to turn? If the Bernie Sanders of our society don't seek higher office in 2012, do we turn to the military to maintain the public order now threatened by the kooks of the radical right? Do moderates and liberals turn to youthful anarhists, or a professional class of hired thugs or mercenaries to enforce the will of the common people? Or to a new class of shamans or priests of our Civic Religion in the public press and academic circles reflecting the frustrations and the needs of those unrepresented in Washington?
We should be worried when we hear of an Afghan-born coffee vendor in lower Manhattan ,with God knows how many accomplices ,with fanatical zeal, but calm and collected, going about unnoticed until just recently, working to bring down the whole financial house of cards in one giant act. Yes, it is a fragile world and we had best pay close attention to the people who are repeatedly ground into the dirt by a disposable congress. A people with their best interest and future welfare repeatedly ignored and thrust aside. This is the mother's milk of revolutions.
I'll tell you this. If the Supreme Court overturns the current restricitions on campaign financing, what's left of the US brand of democracy is finished. You are correct, we need campaigns with fixed dollar amounts that are funded by the government. It would be outstanding to see which legislator used the funds most effectively for his election. Then we could gauge how skillfully he or she could manage taxpayer dollars well ahead of time instead of being blindsided by their out-of-touch incompetence.
The real reason so much money is going into politics is because government controls virtually every aspect of our lives and individuals, unions and corporations have a constitutional right to comment on this.
You are really suggesting that Congress has no integrity. Implying if they get campaign contributions, they will change legislation according to the preferences of the highest bidder. I submit that you should redirect your campaign from controlling the money to making the actions of congress more transparent to the American people. We should know which representative has inserted which final mark-up or amendment. Final bills should be required to be placed on the internet for 2 weeks for public review before a vote.
If your implication of lacking integrity is accurate, transparency is the solution not more control of private money and actions.
I stopped using the phrase “campaign contribution” some time ago. It is a euphemism for payoff money. Payoff money is money given to elected officials for favors granted and favors expected. The result of such payoffs to elected officials is corrupt government. And because corrupt government benefits the few over the many, it cannot be democratic. We Americans therefore are living under an undemocratic and corrupt government.
And, yes, the Supreme Court is about to declare corrupt government to be constitutional.
heck, if we had that Soros could not have bought the election for Obama!