Break up the American plutocracy

Round 5 of Trumpcare and round 67 of Affordable Care Act repeal are done for now. But why did this erupt two weeks before the reconciliation deadline? Think donor money and anger.

The National Republican Senate Committee told senators donations were way down, since the Republican-majority Congress had produced nothing in nine months. The Koch brothers said they had $400 million that would be held until ACA was repealed and tax cuts were passed. Among other right wing extremist billionaires, the Mercers gave large sums to Steve Bannon and Breitbart to whip up sentiment on the alt-right, far right “base.” Sounds to me like we have billionaires dictating legislative outcomes to our representatives in Congress.

Ever since the Citizens United decision, this dark money has increased dramatically, but since the majority party is Republican, that’s where the action is.

If you think our democracy has not now devolved into a plutocracy, you have not been paying attention. These are public servants, who need to do things to help their constituents have better lives. If any of the five ACA repeal bills of the last nine months helped any citizen who was not in the top 2 percent, I fail to see who it would be.

As Sen. John McCain said, the process was flawed, and he favored “regular order” and bipartisanship. That has resumed and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is on the committee. Urge him to put some sanity back in Congress by a bipartisan approach to improving health care.

This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 11:34 AM with the headline "Break up the American plutocracy."