American losers
Money in politics translates to a lower standard of living for the vast majority of Americans.
Our Internet Is Slow In the 2014 election alone, the Telecom Five bribed the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and Internet to the tune of $762,000 and the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology with $1,047,500. The United States averages slower internet than ten other developed countries. If you live in parts of the south and throughout west, your internet lags behind much of the developing world. And ever wonder why you have to buy all the cable channels just to get the few you want? It doesn’t have to be that way…
Our Healthcare Is Shitty Americans spend more on healthcare than any other developed nation and for the money we spend we get shittier care. The insurance industry bribed federal officials with over $57,000,000 in the 2013-2014 election cycle and big pharma bribed our federal politicians with more than $13,000,000 in the same period. Back when Obamacare was in the works, The Pharma Five blackmailed, bought, and threatened members of Congress and the Whitehouse to keep drug reform out of the ACA.
Our Environment is a Disaster Between 1991 and 2011, 97% of peer-reviewed scientific literature that took a position on climate change agreed that it was happening and that humans are causing it. So for 25 years, the scientific community has been in full agreement that greenhouse gas emissions are drastically affecting our atmosphere and yet congress has still done very little to halt the toxins that we’re pumping into the air. That should come as no surprise when you see the bribes from Big Oil and Gas to our elected officials: $28,000,000 from the 2013-2014 cycle and over $70,000,000 in the 2012 election. Koch Industries alone has committed to spending $900,000,000 in the 2016 election.
Our Elections are Rigged And now we come full circle. When corporations can bribe politicians, elections are no longer fair. When Bernie Sanders announced his presidential bid, the pundit response was, “But he won’t raise enough money.” Which means the issue is clear as day. Large corporations have become the gatekeepers to our government. We vote for our representatives, but from a pool of people picked by the Telecom Five, the Pharma Five, the Banking Six, or the Koch Industries. That’s not democracy, that’s oligarchy.
The losers are the 99% of Americans who can’t afford to buy a politician.