Follow the Money

In the post Citizen's United political reality, the presence of unprecedented amounts of money in our political system has sought to remake our government. With this decision, Harry "Lighthorse" Lee's pronouncement of the Constitution of 1787 as being a gateway to oligarchy comes to fruition.

Take for example the struggle the President and others have had in establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, many called for a reexamination of the financial regulations and the agencies charged with enforcement. The resulting legislation, while lacking the teeth of Glass-Stegall it at least sought to establish an agency charged with ensuring that consumers would not fall victim to predatory lending and other unsavory practices. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, believes this is a bad idea. And the head of the House Banking Committee believes that government and its regulators exist to serve the banks. These positions are not unexpected if you see who their major campaign contributors are. The financial services industry has given over $5 billion dollars in campaign contributions directly to federal legislatures, an investment they certainly expect to pay dividends in the form of favorable legislation and regulations. On today's Cenk Uygur show a journalist from Wall Street Journal said financial regulation would harm job creation, and parroted the views of the financial sector.

Protecting consumers in the marketplace is one function that our federal government is uniquely positioned to perform effectively. Consumers should know, in plain language, what the contract for credit they are entering into entails of them. An agency charged with ensuring this practice should find at its head someone who is not on the financial services industry payroll. Elizabeth Warren is someone who understands this, and that is why the Republicans in the Senate have been against her appointment as well as anyone to head an agency that would protect the consumer from the financial services industry.

In Oliver Stone's film JFK, X told Jim Garrison to follow the money if you wanted to know who killed Kennedy. If you want to know why your elected representatives are taking the positions they are, you should follow their money. Look at who are their largest campaign contributors, and how their voting record supports those donors. When in doubt, follow the money.

You Have Nobody to Blame but Yourself

Today the Senate, a/k/a "Where Good Bills go to Die", found itself once again ground zero for the gridlock that has plagued Washington since the President Barack Obama became president and the Republican party decided that they were going to sulk like petulant children and use parliamentary procedure to effectively grind our legislative process to a halt.

Like we have seen so many times before, the Republicans aren't the only ones to blame. Today Senators Blanche Lincoln and her colleague from Arkansas Mark Pryor stood with the obstructionists to bar the Defense Authorization bill from coming to the floor for debate.

Senator Lincoln finds herself all but voted out of office. Barring of course a great scandal involving her opponent and has only herself to blame for her dilemma. By standing side by side with special interests and opposing some of the ideas that are at the core of her party, she in effect gave the Democratic party and their supporters no reason to support her. That is the reason she faced a primary challenge from Bill Halter which received great support from the base of the party. While some people might say that a republican majority in Congress would have a negative effect on the nation as a whole, and it would. What good is a Democrat who is willing to stand with the Republicans and support bigotry or corporate interests? Blanche Lincoln turned her back on the base of her party and will have only herself to blame when she loses her bid for re-election.