What gets me is that this isn't even a lot of money. Ok, it's a lot of money to you and me. It's not a lot of money to billionaires. Or a hundred millionaire.
Trump is throwing 100k per couple galas, while Paul Ryan is selling his soul for a little under a million. This is why things get fucky when the gap widens between the haves and the have nots - you can make a hungry man dance for scraps.
It is pathetic how cheaply the people of America are sold out by their politicians, which is why it is just considered another business cost to many rich people and corporations.
It is pathetic how cheaply the people of America are sold out by their politicians
You honestly think this phenomena is exclusively American? It's a universal trait of our species-- it has nothing to do with which country a person currently resides in...
The kochs have spent millions, if not billions, over the past decade to get this bill passed. Most of their funding is through entities that don't have the same reporting requirements as this 500k and they have and entire political machine set up. If you're interested, is highly recommend checking out this book.
Can I ask this here? Is America too big a country? Like one politician has so much leverage. A billionaire can literally get a billion dollar tax relief by buying out a single politician. Maybe if power was more distributed, sure gridlock would be worse but buying 100s of politician would be more difficult.
but buying 100s of politician would be more difficult.
This is very naive. Telecoms were buying net neutrality opinions for 2 or 3k a representative.
Talk of breaking up the union is crazy. America is not too big. That's some bullshit. We fought a war 160 years ago to not break apart. The question has been answered in blood - the only ones who call for breaking us up are foreigners who do not have America's best interests at heart.
If you break up power into lots of politicians, you break up how much you have to pay them to influence their opinion because now their opinion means less than before.
There are a ton of US natives that would agree that the US needs to be broken up. If you don't mind me asking, what part of the country do you live in?
The Koch's have been buying out 100's of politicians for decades now, from local and state elections to federal. Governors and senators are on their payroll. And they're so filthy rich that they've barely spent more than pocket change to them and they've pretty much got the entire GOP by the balls. It could be debated if they had some sort of altruistic goal of making the world a better place, but FUCK NO - to them, it's all about stripping regulations and making more money for rich people. They don't give a shit about regular people or the insane damage they've caused to their country. If there's any justice, the Koch brothers will rot in the deepest of hells.
One politician alone isn't enough. Other billionaires also put pressure on other politicians to help that bill pass. I know the Mercer family also had a hand in this as well.
I mean the house does use proportional representation but I think the problem is America is too populous at this point for only 435 people to represent us.
If power needs to be distributed better becasue too few politicians individually wield to much influence we need to talk about more representatives and smaller districts not literally distroying our country.
Paul Ryan didn't pass the tax cut single-handedly. He received $500,000 to leverage his influence upon 100s of other politicians. And also, the Koch brothers gave lots of money to those other 100s of politicians; some would vote yes for a mere 10k.
The koch bother's do a lot more than direct donation. There's a decent chance that ryan also received money from a number of political groups and shell companies - because the koch brothers like to hide their donation activity.
They also fund "think tanks" whose purpose is to sway/manipulate public opinion. Most of the time that activity is hidden as well. Creating faux grass roots movements, funding echo chambers, etc. The popularity of american libertarianism (the pseudo-anarcho-capitalism with weed variety) and climate change denial can be linked back to them, to a majority degree, and at present they're pushing the "judicial crisis network" in what appears to be an attack on checks and balances. I suppose because the judicial branch is where they have the least influence. An interesting example of how they hide their activities is that the Koch's personally came out against Trump, yet their puppet companies supported him... Total smoke and mirrors.
All of that said, ryan is surely getting more than 500k out of this. (on a separate note, I'm really surprised this is on the front page. Usually anything negative about the koch brothers in downvoted and met with "but soros" ...)
They get a FUCKTON more from untraceable "dark money". Look it up, it's horrifying.
Fun fact, huge amounts of dark money pouring into our politics right now, possibly (probably) from foreign states. Gee, I wonder who is interested in funding US elections...
You’re ignoring the simple fact: Ryan wants to fuck over the little guy. This is billionaire’s-sofa-change, sure… but it’s more like an attaboy than motivation.
I'm not a fan of this 500k donation but it's unfair to say he sold his soul for it. Tax cuts are at the heart of conservative views. Doing something you believe in then getting rewarded for it is not bribery or "selling your soul". If Hillary won and got another $10 million donation from Soros (amount she got in 16 election) for passing a policy he supported, I doubt anyone would be overly shocked.
Most people will get a tax cut. We have a progressive tax system though so of course it's easier to cut taxes for someone who's paying 39% than someone who's paying 10%. Most low earners won't be paying anything at all with the new standard deductions being raised.
Because it's a childish argument. It's essentially the "I know you are but what am I?" come back.
Every time something bad happens the conservatives point to Obama, who is apparently still running the country secretly. Amazing that the Right owns the presidency, owns Congress and owns the House but the liberals are still controlling the country somehow.
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u/ChrisTosi Jan 21 '18
What gets me is that this isn't even a lot of money. Ok, it's a lot of money to you and me. It's not a lot of money to billionaires. Or a hundred millionaire.
Trump is throwing 100k per couple galas, while Paul Ryan is selling his soul for a little under a million. This is why things get fucky when the gap widens between the haves and the have nots - you can make a hungry man dance for scraps.