Why Congress Fears Crossing The NSA
What accounts for the disconnect between public outrage and Washington nonchalance? Is it money? Ideology? Or is it something even more sinister? In fact, it's almost certainly a combination of all three - with the third apparently so taboo almost nobody dares mention it.
That first story of money is the most obvious. The private intelligence industry is a $56-billion-a-year business whose profits are almost wholly dependent on government contracts - and thus, on political decisions in Washington. Consequently, the industry spends lavishly on everything from congressional lobbying, to campaign contributions to Beltway media advertising to hiring politically-connected ex-government officials to enriching future presidential candidates.
Those influence-buying expenditures are, of course, far larger than those mustered by underfunded public interest groups that advocate for civil liberties protections. And so, just like cash imbalances explain congressional votes for corporate-backed tax, trade and regulatory policies that the public loathes, campaign finance data suggest that the surveillance-related cash imbalance is a huge part of why Congress' refuses to curtail the increasingly unpopular NSA.
https://www.nsfwcorp.com/scribble/5695/93da53ee074e5184d8aff848c183c523fd8865a0/
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