Sunday, May 30, 2010

Big Money


The practice of lobbying in order to influence political decisions is a legitimate and necessary part of the democratic process. Unfortunately the only way to gain access to our politicians is with money. Big money means control in this country.

Since 1998, 43 percent of the 198 members of Congress who left government to join private life have registered to lobby. There’s big money in working for big money.

When the Supreme Court rejected a corporate spending limit in a 5-to-4 decision, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. I suppose the corporations do.

It seems obvious that the current climate of fear of big government has been generated by big money that fears regulation.

Without money we don’t have a voice. I wish I had a solution but I don’t think people as a whole have the ability to decide anything for themselves.

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