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Friday, April 26, 2013 6:59:05 PM
WORST CONGRESS MONEY CAN BUY
Failed gun control legislation and a fertilizer plant explosion reveal how poisoned by big money our government is
Friday, Apr 26, 2013 03:05 PM CDT
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
This piece originally appeared on BillMoyers.com.
If you want to see why the public approval rating of Congress is down in the sub-arctic range — an icy 15 percent by last count — [ http://www.gallup.com/poll/161771/congress-approval-remains-slump.aspx ] all you have to do is take a quick look at how the House and Senate pay worship at the altar of corporations, banks and other special interests at the expense of public aspirations and need.
Traditionally, political scientists have taught their students that there are two schools of thought about how a legislator should get the job done. One is to vote yay or nay on a bill by following the will of his or her constituency, doing what they say they want. The other is to represent them as that legislator sees fit, acting in the best interest of the voters — whether they like it or not.
But our current Congress — as cranky and inert as an obnoxious old uncle who refuses to move from his easy chair — never went to either of those schools. Its members rarely have the voter in mind at all, unless, of course, that voter’s a cash-laden heavy hitter with the clout to keep an incumbent on the leash and comfortably in office.
How else to explain a Congress that still adamantly refuses to do anything, despite some 90 percent of the American public being in favor of background checks for gun purchases and a healthy majority favoring other gun control measures? Last week, they ignored the pleas of Newtown families and the siege of violence in Boston and yielded once again to the fanatical rants of Wayne LaPierre and the National Rifle Association. In just the first three months of this year, as it shoved back against the renewed push for controls, the NRA spent a record $800,000 keeping congressional members in line.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/04/20/12534/nra-spends-record-money-lobbying-year
...
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/26/tk_5_partner_13/
Failed gun control legislation and a fertilizer plant explosion reveal how poisoned by big money our government is
Friday, Apr 26, 2013 03:05 PM CDT
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
This piece originally appeared on BillMoyers.com.
If you want to see why the public approval rating of Congress is down in the sub-arctic range — an icy 15 percent by last count — [ http://www.gallup.com/poll/161771/congress-approval-remains-slump.aspx ] all you have to do is take a quick look at how the House and Senate pay worship at the altar of corporations, banks and other special interests at the expense of public aspirations and need.
Traditionally, political scientists have taught their students that there are two schools of thought about how a legislator should get the job done. One is to vote yay or nay on a bill by following the will of his or her constituency, doing what they say they want. The other is to represent them as that legislator sees fit, acting in the best interest of the voters — whether they like it or not.
But our current Congress — as cranky and inert as an obnoxious old uncle who refuses to move from his easy chair — never went to either of those schools. Its members rarely have the voter in mind at all, unless, of course, that voter’s a cash-laden heavy hitter with the clout to keep an incumbent on the leash and comfortably in office.
How else to explain a Congress that still adamantly refuses to do anything, despite some 90 percent of the American public being in favor of background checks for gun purchases and a healthy majority favoring other gun control measures? Last week, they ignored the pleas of Newtown families and the siege of violence in Boston and yielded once again to the fanatical rants of Wayne LaPierre and the National Rifle Association. In just the first three months of this year, as it shoved back against the renewed push for controls, the NRA spent a record $800,000 keeping congressional members in line.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/04/20/12534/nra-spends-record-money-lobbying-year
...
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/26/tk_5_partner_13/
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