Show Me The Money

Our political system is one big corrupt circus where the more corrupt you are the farther you go. Only in America does the person who collects the most money generally win elections. This makes politics a game of appeasing those who have the money to put into campaign coffers. In return for their investment, these contributors get special favors. These favors are in the form of legislation favorable to either these contributors’ industries and/or their personal wealth.

The biggest problem is the Lobbying industry. This industry funnels ridiculous amounts of money and “perks” from Corporate America to our elected officials. Lobbyists use campaign contributions as the number one way to make politicians favorable to anything they ask. Many make donations to the political party with unwritten directions for the money to go to one politician or another in order to bypass campaign contribution limits. The next best thing to campaign contributions is setting up bullshit paid speeches for politicians to give. These speeches are often half an hour long, about anything the “speaker” wants to a special interest group, and pay outrageous speaker fees. Then there are the vacations, sports tickets, concert tickets, dinners, limos. The list of perks Lobbyists give to politicians in order to butter them up is too long to write here.

All this money and these perks hardly ever go without their rewards. One needs to look no further than the current healthcare reform bills currently being considered by congress. Democrats took the single payer option off the table before they even got started. Why would they do such a thing when many of them made this a focal point of their campaigns? For that answer take a look at where their campaign money came from. Blue Cross/Blue Shield alone gave $1,427,528 to the democrats during the 2008 election cycle. That’s one health insurance provider. Democrats were screaming about single payer universal health care during the elections, which would severely cripple if not shut down these insurers. Once elected to follow through n their promises they recant one of their central election themes. Could it be that they are afraid of putting some big contributors of business?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Follow the money and you can predict the outcome of any proposed legislation. When the congress passes legislation that seems for the good of the general public, beware. Most of this kind of legislation is either watered down to the point that it has no real affect, or has hidden amendments that favor corporate interests.

There will be much more in depth analysis of our political system. We’re just getting started.