Two Political Parties For The Prices Of $1,188,644,055 State, National, International, posted by GX, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Oct 10, 2011 at 8:16 pm
Food for thought for all you Democrat and Republican fans out there. Both parties are being bought by Wall Steet:
That is nearly $1.2 Billion split between the two parties. And look who the top two were - Obama and Bush.
Is it any wonder we can't get a decent financial reform bill passed - one that would actually deal with the root causes of the previous crisis, not the joke of the one we got? Is it any wonder none of the big issues are being solved?
Posted by steve, a resident of the Parkside neighborhood, on Oct 11, 2011 at 8:39 am
Not good, but compared to the bigger picture, even if this money were paid directly to the federal govt to pay down the debt, its impact would be not much more than a rounding error. How do you propose we change this paradigm?
Posted by GX, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Oct 11, 2011 at 9:57 am
Steve - I agree that our Federal fiscal situation is a much bigger issue. But I believe it is important that we start to disect the reasons for all the dysfunction coming out of Washington and the fact that we can't craft credible solutions for obvious problems. Problems that will continue to erode this once-great country.
It is long past time to hold our leaders accountable. And this Republican/Democrat barb fest is not helping anyone. Both political parties as they are structured today are failing the American people.
Posted by jimf01, a resident of another community, on Oct 12, 2011 at 4:11 pm jimf01 is a member (registered user) of PleasantonWeekly.com
steve - I disagree, if this money were had been used to pay down the debt rather than for campaign contributions, the effect would be great. Take corporate money out of politics, and you solve half the problem. Remove the army of lobbyists who write most of todays legislation, you take care of the other half.
Many legislators freely admit they spend the majority of their time in office working on getting re-elected. The rub is how to change it. IMO, the only constitutional answer is to legislate the change, i.e. get them to reform the funding of their own campaigns.
It is like asking the pigs how to take the slop out of the trough.
Posted by GX, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Oct 12, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Dylan Ratigan is pursuing a grassroots effort to get money out of politics:
You can sign up to get money out of Federal elections by signing the Constitutional Amendment (signing up on the internet) to do so. It isn’t legally binding, but will help to get the special interests out of politics by putting attention on the main issue with our country----that both parties are bought and paid for by special interests.
It is easy to signup, just go to www.getmoneyout.com
Posted by lazzboy, a resident of the Another Pleasanton neighborhood neighborhood, on Oct 12, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Why is the argument always "its not about ________ money, it wouldn't even make a dent in the deficit".
You know what? every cent would make a dent. We paid hundred of billions of dollars to bail out banks - much of which was paid as bonuses to people who drove them to bankruptcy in the first place. It is this Wall Street/DC connection that bothers people. Half of the financial policy makers in DC worked on Wall St and still have substantial financial stake in what goes on there (not to mention all of their friends). It is a problem. Entitlements are a problem. We have lots of problems and fixing them even just a little bit will help.
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