The Republican Tax Plan

The Money That's Buying Our Elections and Government In These United States

Why we must fight to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United Ruling and then fight to end campaign contributions.



We can do this.

We must.

"Vashington Been Beddy, Beddy Gud" for Senator Blunt

Roy Blunt has gotten rich in Washington.

How is that working out for you?


Vote Jason Kander

Vote Blue 2016

Quote of the Day -- On Business and Government

We Have To Close This "Revolving Door"

We have got to close this "revolving door" between government and business and we must close it legally and formally and soon as possible.

New Term for Bought Politicians

So a buddy of mine were talking at work and I gave him my usual, deeply felt opinion, briefly, that I thought the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision had to be overturned and that we had to kill campaign contributions. That, until we do that, nothing would change, it would remain representatives, legislation and so, laws and government for the wealthy and corporations. (I didn't say all that but you get the idea).

And this buddy says we have to end the...

wait for it...

pocketicians.



Dang.

I instantly loved it.

He said it just came to him.

Had to spread the word.  Literally.

(With great thanks to friend Joe--Joe Thompson--for the word. Glad I was there).

They're "Job Creators", all right

Fight to get the big money out

Represent.Us

Get the Big, Ugly Money Out of Our Election System and Government

The tough reporting we need from our media

CBS TV program "60 Minutes" did this segment on their program years ago, 2007, shamefully, and it's an important piece:



And the thing is, now, neither CBS nor this program, "60 Minutes" no longer does this kind of honest, hard-hitting reporting on how our government is working and working against the people, against the common man and woman, the working class of our nation. They only do fluff pieces, "infortainment" on puppy dogs and skiers and sportspeople. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have the most expensive health care system in the world, and a lot of other systemic, endemic problems in our nation and society. The wealthy and corporations are having their way with us.

And we're letting them.  Lazily letting them--the media and so, our government and the corporations and wealthy--all get away with it and in a lot of ways, most all financial.

Notice, to my knowledge, CBS and this program has never once done a tough piece like this on the big banks like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and the like, even though they famously brought us all, nationally and internationally, to the edge of a fiscal, financial cliff back in 2008,

I wonder why.

Link:  Under The Influence - CBS News

From the "Things We Allow Corporations to Get Away With" file

Perhaps you saw some of these headlines in the last few days?

West Virginians to be without water for days because of chemical spill

Tap water fix in West Virginia still days away, official says

Thousands Without Water After Spill in West Virginia

West Virginia chemical spill frustrates residents for fourth day

Which brings up this thought I saw yesterday on Facebook:

"If a foreign terrorist group poisoned the water of an entire region in the U.S. we'd likely be going into another war, but since it's just an improperly regulated company, well, that's just the cost of doing business."

--From a post on Http://Fb.com/TheMarmelPage

Additional link:  The Steve Marmel Page

Americans polarized politically? Follow the money

As a nation, plenty have wondered aloud why we Americans are so polarized, politically.  Why so far Right Wing? Why so far Left?

There was a terrific, even important, if lengthy, article in The New York Times yesterday, describing at least in part precisely why it happened and is happening.  As usual, as I've written here and elsewhere before, it's a case of money--and political parties--buying us.  And votes.  And even legislatures:

A National Strategy Funds State Political Monopolies

By his third year as chairman of the Alabama Republican organization, Mike Hubbard believed his party had just about everything it needed to win control of the State Legislature.

He had a plan: an 88-page playbook for the 2010 campaign, with detailed, district-by-district budgets and precise voter turnout targets. He had candidates: doctors, lawyers and small-business owners, most of them political novices recruited with an eye toward the anti-establishment fervor roiling the country.

What Mr. Hubbard did not have was enough money. Alabama law barred corporations, deep-pocketed natural allies for state Republicans, from giving more than $500 to candidates and parties — a limit that did not apply to the state’s unions.

So began a nationwide quest for cash that would take Mr. Hubbard, plan in hand, to the Republican Parties in states like Florida and Ohio, to a wealthy Texan who was one of the country’s biggest Republican givers and to a Washington organization that would provide checks from dozens of out-of-state corporations, among them ExxonMobil,  Google, Facebook and Altria.

Exploiting a loophole in the state law and a network of political action committees in Alabama and Washington, Mr. Hubbard shuffled hundreds of thousands of out-of-state dollars into the Republican organization in Alabama, vastly outraising the state Democratic Party. On Election Day, Republicans won majorities in both the State Senate and House of Representatives for the first time since Reconstruction — and Alabama joined the rapidly growing fraternity of states where government is controlled by a single political party, now the largest it has been in more than half a century.

Further proof positive, folks.  We are being bought and sold. The wealthy and corporations, as shown here, are buying and selling us.

We have to fight to end this. 

We need to fight to end campaign contributions. 

We need to fight to get bills making this kind of out-of-state contributions illegal.

We need to make political campaigns--what?--one or two months long, total, on both the state and federal levels, as England did years ago so our legislators don't need or shill for this money.

And it's not just a Republican Party problem, by any means. It's both parties and any and every other political party that has any power whatever.

It's only then we'll get our country back, our government back, for the people.

Additional, great information on this very topic, too, from local blogger 

Radioman Kansas City:  

Leaked Republican Tape reveals they Manufacture Scandals

We're being bought and sold, folks.  You know it, I know it, we all know it.  We need to stand up and demand an end to it.  We can do this. 

In the meantime, these are just some of the results we're getting here in America, as we also know:

Doesn't this go against everything America and Americans are supposed to be about?

We must take back our elections and so, our government

Let's get the big, ugly money out of our elections

And so, out of our government.

 

Fight to end campaign contributions.

 

 

Yet more reasons we need to end campaign contributions

As though there aren't already enough reasons to end the obscenity that is the campaign contributions of our election and government system--a lot I've written of here--yet more:

Leftover Loot: More Leave Congress With Lots of Campaign Cash

Members of Congress spend much of their careers chasing campaign cash and struggling to boost their war chests to fight off the next rival. When their careers are over, and there are no more rivals, many quickly dispose of what little cash is left by donating it to charity, returning it to donors or transferring it to party committees.
 

But not all. An increasing number find themselves sitting on flush bank accounts. 

 

A Center for Responsive Politics analysis shows that the number of former members of Congress who have campaign committees holding more than $100,000 has dramatically increased. In the 1998 election cycle, there were just 18 former members with war chests of that size. The number rose and fell slightly over the years until 2010, when there were 21. By 2012 there were 37. Now, the campaign accounts of 52 ex-lawmakers hold more than $100,000 in cash -- and eight have more than $1,000,000.

 

For some, this creates an opportunity to continue to play a role in politics or to support politicians they like. But several told OpenSecrets.org that with so many charities and politicians asking for a cut of the action, having a lot of leftover campaign cash becomes something of a burden.

__________________________

 

We need to stop this nonsense.

 

We need to demand an end to campaign contributions in our elections so we can get our government back.

 

For the people.

 

 

 

What we need in America

We need to end campaign contributions. 

Totally, utterly. 

We need to end the big, ugly, corrupting influence of money from the wealthy and corporations in our election system and government.  It's the only way we'll get back our representatives, their legislation, our laws and so, our government for the people.

And it has to come from us.

We must end campaign contributions

We have to get the big, ugly, corrupting influence of money from the wealthy and corporations out of our election system and government.

We must.

It's the only way we'll get our government and so, our country, back for the people and good of the nation.

Kansans, do you know what they're doing in Topeka?

From Kansas Representative Paul Davis' Facebook page today:

"House Bill 2314 would give legislators a 'cost of living adjustment'...for special interest wining and dining. It increases lobbyist gifts from $100 to $500 per legislator, bumps up the threshold for reporting daily gifts from $2 to $15, and increases the meal limit maximum from $25 to $50. It will be very disappointing if the Legislature gets this done this year but is unable to come together to provide adequate funding for our kids' education."

More on this here: Bill could shroud thousands of dollars in gifts to KS legislators

A small bit of a synopsis:

TOPEKA — New legislation in the Kansas Capitol aims to help state legislators rake in more of the sweet perks that come with their seat under the dome.

Whether it’s a T-bone steak or a round of golf, it’s no secret that lobbyists love to shower Kansas lawmakers with incentives to foster political ties or sway legislative leanings. However, a new bill in the House would not only make it easier for politicians to accept bigger and better gifts, it would make some entirely undetectable.

The bill, HB 2314, was set before members of the House Elections committee Monday afternoon, and would allow individual lobbyists to give — and lawmakers to receive — as much as $500 in recreational gifts per calendar year, up from the current $100 maximum. Chris Carroll, who lobbies for AT&T, said as it stands now anything beyond the maximum must be repaid by the legislator. 

They're certainly taking care of themselves over there in Topeka, aren't they, ladies and gentlemen?

This on top of their earlier attempt at more of the same, just a couple weeks ago that Rep. Davis and the Hutchinson News also pointed out:

Laughable legislation

Proposed bill would guarantee perpetual employment for lawmakers

Kansas Senator Greg Smith, R-Overland Park, has introduced one of the most absurd pieces of legislation to ever see the light of day.

Senate Bill 119, introduced on Monday, would offer employment protection for legislators who find themselves unemployed due to a failed re-election bid. According to the bill, legislators who give proper notice to their employers before taking office - either through election or appointment - would be guaranteed a return to those same positions - with the same pay, seniority and responsibility level - they would have enjoyed had they never left the job at all.

Essentially, the bill aims to treat a stint in Topeka much like a leave of absence for medical reasons or military duty.

It makes me wonder. Is there something in the drinking water over there at the capitol? Because if there isn't, this is just bold-faced, raw greed and selfishness.
 
Question to Kansans: Are you really going to put up with this? Is this what you elected these people for over there? This and taking tax burdens off the wealthy and putting it on the middle-class and poorer people of your state, among other things like also trying to weaken unions and screw up school funding. Really?

This is the welfare we need to end

So many rant and rave and complain about welfare and how it needs to be cut, sure, as we well know but the real welfare that needs to end and that is costing us far, far more is the corporate welfare they buy through our legislators.

Want proof?

Here you go:

The graph above (click on it for better, easier viewing) shows that corporate profits (red line) have soared even as they've cut employees and jobs (blue).

Here's your "welfare recipients" and we need to get rid of them:

And the way to get it started is by killing campaign contributions.

Let's get this party started.

Quote of the day

"We're losing what's left of our democracy under a tsunami of big money.

On Day One after Election Day -- whoever wins -- we must mobilize and organize to get big money out of politics: campaign finance reform, public financing of elections, reversal of Citizen's United by constitutional amendment if necessary, full disclosure of all sources of money used to campaign for or against any candidate."

--Robert Reich,American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator.

Please join him and his--this/our--effort here: https://www.facebook.com/RBReich?ref=stream

Other links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich

Want to help change America for the better?

Stop complaining and push for true, stringent, accountable, tough, prosecutable campaign finance reform and help get the big, ugly money out of our election system and so, our government.

Corporations and the wealthy buy their legislators--our legislators--with their "campaign contributions." Then, they get their legislation so they also end up getting our laws and so, finally, our government.

Until we get the big, ugly, corrupting influence of money out of our election system and so, our government, nothing will change.

I think virtually all of us agree on this one thing.

Be part of the change. Push for campaign finance reform. Help end these "campaign contributions", completely.

It really is that simple.

Link:  We need to make campaign finance a civil rights issue