Who IS Government For?

I read a very interesting article written by Robert Reich, “The Defining Issue:  Who Is Government For?”

Obviously these days, it’s not for the American people.  BIG rules, small is ignored. Big gets the benefits, small pays through the nose. Goliath struts and swaggers, David runs between the steps and tries not to get stepped on! ‘Big everything’ gets its way because it has the bucks to pay off some of our elected leaders or enough mouths to whisper convincingly that the small should be discounted.

I am not a political expert but just one of millions of frustrated & pissed off Americans saddened by the inequity of what our country has become.

On food:  We’re up against government subsidies for the monolithic farms while small farms get nothing.  Regulations are ‘one size fits all,’ favoring Big Ag while small farmers find they can’t comply because of the cost.  The ghost of Earl Butz, the patron saint of agribusiness, is still whispering to policymakers, “Tell them to ‘get big or get out!’ “

Secret deals of the chemical industry’s corporate-to-government appointees hold any true progress for ‘we the people’ at bay.  Critical data is conveniently lost, destroyed or litigated out of exposure by the powerful such as Monsanto, Dow or Syngenta.

The Feds seem hell-bent on going after Amish dairy farmers and other raw milk purveyors and small buying clubs.   Small farmers remain the convenient focus and easy prey, lacking funds for high-priced legal teams,  and still have to jump through a dizzying array of  hoops. These hoops are far too expensive  & always prohibitive of the little guys to navigate, essentially locking out the small farms.

There are no ’hoops’ for the big guys, however. The loopholes are designed by them to easily slip through. Those who sit in Washington, with the power to close these escape hatches, won’t.  Like the big corporations, they are greedy and guilty of selling out the American people.  WE THE PEOPLE don’t matter:  money does!

The USDA is considering letting “Big Biotech” submit its own impact studies  which, in turn, may allow them sell products which have not  had complete (or any) scrutiny before approval.  More rubber stamped approvals for poison, which in 20 or 50 years will turn out to be the DDT, dioxin or the Agent Orange of the 2000s.

I don’t know what the answer is.  One, is to get the money out of politics, but that’s easier said than done.  Perhaps somehow a citizen’s committee – a go between, to act as a buffer.  Just thinking out loud here….

Well we’ve all heard the saying,  “Money talks…”

Mr. Reich says, and I agree, that we need an amendment to the constitution to get rid of the wrongly named,  Citizen’s United bill.   It is mind-boggling that these supposed wizened justices ever considered passing such a thing which is clearly written by and for corporate America!

Supreme Court:  Money in relation to  government policy making or the  elections is not ‘free speech.’  Simply, it is bribery, collusion, payoffs, graft, hush money, purchase, deal making, coercion and favoritism. It is WRONG!  Money speaks the language of the corporate élite, not the American people and certainly not the small farmers of this country.

Supreme Court: Corporations are not people.  Corporations are  a society of their own with a hierarchy: those at the bottom do the will of those at the top whose only goal is profit.    Individual lives of their employees don’t matter because in this economy, people are dispensable, like slaves.  Lose one and a thousand others will appear, so desperate for an income.

Every decision directly benefits the good of the few, not the many.

Nothing matters but the bottom line or how much one person can amass while in office. Not the health or welfare of sentient beings can dampen greed.

After all, things are going great for government officials who are channeling Boss Tweed.  Why should they stop now?