Missed Opportunity

I realize I opened a can of worms yesterday with my comments
about Congress and the suggestion that members of both parties are now more
beholden to corporate interests (via campaign contributions) than they ever
have been.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to back away from that statement.
In fact, I plan to pursue it because it is of critical importance right
now.

But first, I must acknowledge several comments I received
from Daily Profit readers taking me to task for griping
about corporate campaign contributions but ignoring campaign contributions
from unions and other special interest groups.

Sorry about that: I will gladly add unions and special
interest groups to my list that should be prohibited from making direct
contributions to political campaigns.

I’d also like to add that I don’t see the campaign
contribution issue as a Democrat or Republican issue. The point is that our
politicians – all of them – are more concerned with getting re-elected (or
elected in the first place) than making the right decisions for the
country.

It seems to me that
virtually all legislation we’ve seen passed by the current Congress has been
heavily influenced by the hand of Corporate America.

The financial regulation bill was toothless because the
banking lobby succeeded in removing virtually all of the “Volcker Rules.” The
healthcare bill puts an unfair burden on small businesses because the
insurance lobby was successful in removing the “public option” that would
have attacked the insurance sectors profits.

Of course, this is not new to the Obama administration. We
saw Congress kowtow to corporations during the Bush years as well. And the
Clinton years. Only now, the stakes are getting higher because we have some
serious issues to deal with. Like energy