Congress, Bought and Intimidated

By Tom Ehrich

When special interests buy a Congress and make legislators afraid, this is what you get.

They ignore recent tragedies and the desire of a vast majority of Americans, and they capitulate to the gun lobby.

They impose a little public embarrassment on egregious banking executives but otherwise leave them alone to continue preying on the American public and boosting profits.

They ignore the outcome of the 2012 elections, because in their precious chambers, the balance didn’t shift that much, thanks to gerrymandered districts. The people spoke loud and clear in November, but Congress feels no duty to listen to anyone but lobbyists bearing gifts,  partisan ideologues bearing scorn, and pollsters bearing reelection scenarios.

They ignore the wise advice of economists and adopt the austerity agenda that is already crippling Europe. Instead of adopting policies that could strengthen the American economy, they pursue discredited policies that will enable them to do further damage to the American economy and threaten retirees and the poor, while handing even more of the nation’s wealth to the greedy 1%.

When legislators are bought and intimidated, they ignore the common citizen, the public interest, the course of wisdom, and our American values. The nation apparently means nothing to them.

We can do better than this self-serving gang of rascals.