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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFoul Play in the Senate - by Bill Moyers
The inauguration of a president is one of those spectacles of democracy that can make us remember we're part of something big and enduring. So for a few hours this past Monday the pomp and circumstance inspired us to think that government of, by, and for the people really is just that, despite the predatory threats that stalk it.
But the mood didn't last. Every now and then, as the cameras panned upward, the Capitol dome towering over the ceremony was a reminder of something the good feeling of the moment couldn't erase. It's the journalist's curse to have a good time spoiled by the reality beyond the pageantry. Just a couple of days before the inaugural festivities, the New York Times published some superb investigative reporting by the team of Eric Lipton and Kevin Sack, and their revelations were hard to forget, even at a time of celebration.
The story told us of a pharmaceutical giant called Amgen and three senators so close to it they might be entries on its balance sheet: Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senator Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and that powerful committee's ranking Republican, Orrin Hatch. A trio of perpetrators who treat the United States treasury as if it were a cash-and-carry annex of corporate America.
The Times story described how Amgen got a huge hidden gift from unnamed members of Congress and their staffers. They slipped an eleventh hour loophole into the New Year's Eve deal that kept the government from going over the fiscal cliff. When the sun rose in the morning, there it was, a richly embroidered loophole for Amgen that will cost taxpayers a cool half a billion dollars.
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much much much more:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/25/1182003/-Foul-Play-in-the-Senate
woodsprite
(11,924 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,417 posts)Thanks for the thread, kpete.
for the k&r Uncle Joe
and as always,
peace,
kp
madokie
(51,076 posts)We're getting ripped off to the point that the everyday Jane and Joe has no chance of anything except more and more getting ripped off at every turn. These three and I'm sure a lot more should be run out of town on a rail. My feeling is there is more of the congress critters who should be than not actually.
I think we need to start rattling cages until it catches on because change only comes if we demand it. Congress or Presidents aren't the ones who make change it is us, the citizens.
kairos12
(12,872 posts)and their political sock puppets.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)octoberlib
(14,971 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)nt
CranialRectaLoopback
(123 posts)And better to have a BlowDog Dim than an R. At least that's what the lesser evil promoters always say.
indepat
(20,899 posts)largess can readily be paid for by reducing benefits due social security and Medicare recipients. This tactic is but a microcosm of the way our government operates, yet some are unable to come to grips with the fact that a shenanigan like this is representative of the classic handiwork of a corporatist government.
dem4ward
(323 posts)When is shit like this going to stop? Big corporations are literally bleeding us to death. Between offshore tax havens, tax free loopholes, cut backs and lawmakers in the back pockets, we don't stand a chance. This country is going to shit and so are both parties! I'm fed up.
JohnnyRingo
(18,641 posts)Thanx for the heads up. Last week was a bit dry with two thirds of the episode spent chatting with a poet.