While the rest of us are still battling recession and economists see the struggle continuing through the year, it's painful to be reminded of a political force that has so much money it can afford to own Congress, separating government entirely from the people.
Think Progress reports:
As the Supreme Court readies to announce their decision on the individual mandate portion of the health reform, it has emerged that the largest health care lobbying group in the country spent a total of $102.4 million in just 15 months to prevent Obamacare from becoming law in the first place.
In 2009 alone, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) pumped $86.2 million into a conservative lobbying group, the US Chamber of Commerce, to combat President Obama’s health care reform plan. But with the added months of 2010 prior to the ACA’s March passage, AHIP piled on an additional $16 million to be used against the bill.
That staggering total, which the National Journal’s Influence Alley uncovered today, was not out in the open — rather, the funds were transferred through a secretive process and listed only by the organization as ‘advocacy’ spending. ...Think Progress
E.J. Dionne writes this morning that not even the Federal Elections Commission is standing between citizens and corporations.
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, lassitude at the Federal Election Commission and the growing audacity of very rich conservatives have created a new political system that will make the politics of the Gilded Age look like a clean government paradise.
Americans won’t even fully know what’s happening to them because so much can be donated in secrecy to opaque organizations. It’s always helpful for voters to know who is trying to buy an election, and for whom. This time, much of the auction will be held in private. You can be sure that the candidates will find out who helped elect them, but the voters will remain in the dark. ...WaPo
There are remedies. But, as Dionne says, they're not likely to save the November election from going into the history books as beyond "gilded." He believes it's possible that conservatives, who benefit the most from this distortion of our campaign finance system, could step back and become part of a reform movement.
Maybe that's possible. But not likely.
