It’s official: Congress is being Bribed. And is Delivering for those who Bribe them.

[riqster]

https://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2015/03/19/its-official-congress-is-being-bribed-and-is-delivering-for-those-who-bribe-them/

This study from the Sunlight Foundation proves it. Your humble correspondent ofttimes rails against corruption, and then watches as idiot voters re-elect thieving scumbags. Hopefully this will get spread far and wide, and voters will wake up:

Fixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions

Between 2007 and 2012, 200 of America’s most politically active corporations spent a combined $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A year-long analysis by the Sunlight Foundation suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what those same corporations got: $4.4 trillion in federal business and support.

That figure, more than the $4.3 trillion the federal government paid the nation’s 50 million Social Security recipients over the same period, is the result of an unprecedented effort to quantify the less-examined side of the campaign finance equation: Do political donors get something in return for what they give?


And Hoo Boy, do they EVER get a return on that investment:

Overall, the Fixed Fortune 200’s PACs, employees and their family members gave $597 million to political committees and disclosed spending $5.2 billion on lobbying. They make this enormous investment in politics in large part because their businesses are inextricably entwined with government decisions — including spending decisions.

For example, the federal government issued contracts to purchase goods and services that totaled a little more that $3 trillion during the period; companies among the top 200 corporate political givers won $1 trillion of that, a third of the total. The Treasury Department managed $410 billion in loans and other assistance issued under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, created by Congress to cope with the 2008 financial crisis; of that amount, $298 million, about 73 percent, went to 16 firms among the Fixed Fortune 200. When the Federal Reserve took extraordinary measures in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, it funneled nearly $2.8 trillion through 29 Fixed Fortune firms. The companies that participated the most in politics got huge returns.

It’s BRIBERY. Not because a cranky old fart says so on this blog, but because the evidence says so. The numbers say so. The results say so.

So, Gentle Reader, now you know. Here’s hoping everyone remembers this when election day rolls around. Don’t listen to their speeches, throw away their junk mail, turn off their commercials; look instead at their votes and who may be buying said votes.

Follow the money. Follow your nose. They both will lead you to where the Rats are, and show you what the loathsome critters are up to. It’s never anything good.

[BrotherIvan]

1. That is why I support candidates who want to overturn Citizens United

And publicly financed elections. For the upcoming Presidential race, there is only one candidate who fits into that category.

[riqster]

3. It predates CU.

Although it has gotten even worse since then.

[SamKnause]

2. It has been official for quite some time.

[riqster]

4. S'truth. But we now have numbers that prove it.

No doubt this will get buried in the MSM.

[SamKnause]

5. Numbers and truth do not matter in U.S. government.

Supply side economics (trickle down) proves this. This failed policy was spread globally. Decades of proof ignored.

Climate change proves this. Snowball Inhofe chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public works. He relies on the Bible.

We have people elected to office because they lie and deny facts and numbers.

Until this changes, we will continue of this destructive path.

[riqster]

8. All too true. We have to spread the word.

[hifiguy]

6. If the human species does not overcome greed and religious delusion

we will seal our own doom in the next 100 years.

[2naSalit]

7. I get the feeling that

it's not going to take that long.

[riqster]

10. As Mother Gaia says:

[hifiguy]

15. Wish I could rec your post a thousand times, riqster.

That is it in a nutshell.

[riqster]

17. Yep. Saw it on Facebook and stole it.

[sendero]

9. Those who did not already..

.. know this are buffoons

[riqster]

12. Or just ignorant.

Them, we can inform.

[cascadiance]

20. We need to stop having the state of Texas write most of our textbooks now...

... so that we can get good civics class material, etc. where the younger generation can know more what they've lost since democracy was partially buried starting back in 1980 and is in its death throes now...

[riqster]

21. Agreed.

[cascadiance]

11. 20 years ago, the "free press" would have been telling this us over and over...

when they really were pursuing news then... I wonder why they won't do it today! It's almost like many of the newer generation perhaps doesn't even know what the term "bribery" means any more, it is so much avoided in "official" conversations...

It's too bad that now after that telecomm bill passed, etc. they are as much a part of this BULLSHIT as the political system itself and love a piece of their pie of the bribe money from Citizen's United, etc. too!

[riqster]

14. Thank Reagan for the current state of the "news".

Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine kicked it off, and other legislation/Deregulation accelerated it.

Now we have "infotainment" instead of news.

[brooklynite]

13. I have to disagree...

...The notion that you can "buy" a politician is irrational, because if money was the only issue, someone with an alternative position could offer a higher price. The reality is that lobbyists are supporting politicians who already agree with them. The problem isn't bribery, it's competitiveness: Absent a 100% publicly funded campaign, you have to raise enough money for the other candidate to be competitive.

[riqster]

16. That is not exculpatory:

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/18/disgraced-rep-aaron-schock-leaves-office-3-million-richer-and-with-a-pension/

Aaron Schock is keeping millions of dollars worth of "contributions" as he resigns in "disgrace".
Tell me that isn't bribery.

[brooklynite]

23. No, that's theft...

[Fred Sanders]

26. If one side willingly and openly and happily GIVES money never to be seen again....it is not theft!

It is general bribery.

[Fred Sanders]

18. Political campaign money personally kept is what fuels corruption, not misusing taxpayer money.

[riqster]

19. If taxpayer money is used as part of a quid pro quo, it is corruption.

[Fred Sanders]

22. Of course. But 3 million dollars of "campaign funds" is being personally kept a recent resigning bribed puppet...where is the

greater part of the corruption? Multiple by all the politicians in the GOP who support CU.

ALL of the quid pro quo is with the campaign givers, not the taxpayers.

[riqster]

24. It is connected IMO.

After all, no rational business invests without a return. If taxpayer dollars didn't flow to "donating" businesses, they would quickly cease to donate.

[blkmusclmachine]

25. Democracy, if you can afford it.

UNITED STATES CONGRESS CIRCA 2015

[riqster]

27. The best gummint money can buy.