[late]

A few weeks ago, Joe Mancin went to Texas. If you know American politics, the rest almost writes itself. It was a confab for politicians to kiss the ring of Big Oil.

Dealing with climate change is part of the new Biden bill. From where I sit, it's the most important part, and doesn't do even half what it should.

So while Joe will dance around for a while, you now how he's going to vote.

[Unthinking Majority]

America is failing due to corruption, not much different than the USSR.

American politicians should swear an oath to only serve the interests of the American people and those who do otherwise should be shot as traitors. Ban all political donations above $500 and no donations from businesses, and make all lobbying in front of a camera with transcripts for all to see.

[Steve_American]

America is failing due to corruption, not much different than the USSR.

American politicians should swear an oath to only serve the interests of the American people and those who do otherwise should be shot as traitors. Ban all political donations above $500 and no donations from businesses, and make all lobbying in front of a camera with transcripts for all to see.

I'm, obviously, looking at this problem through the lens that is MMT.
The MMT answer is to just fund all elections in the US with Federal money.
One citizen, one vote!
Ban all campaign contributions, except to minor parties getting started. These minor parties get matching funds, though. Limited to what the major parties are getting for that race.
Fund all major parties equally. Fund challengers with more money.
Note, this also applies to all state and local elections.

[I recently googled early US campaign funding laws, and I found little. What I did find was a claim that the founders didn't imagine that candidates would ask for donations. I guess they intended the rich to pay their own campaign bills, and to, therefore, keep the riff-raff from running.]

Where will the money come from? It will come from the savings that will occur from eliminating the massive wasteful spending that comes from the current system of legal bribes.** For example, in 2020 the Gov. gave over $1T to large corps. for covid, which they just pocketed. Obviously, all of that $1T was newly created money, sort of like the Gov. “printing money”. And, this was fine with almost every person in both houses of Congress.

Alternately, tax all "large" campaign contributions and all political ad buying, other than by candidates, at a 90% rate. If corps. want to bribe Congress, they must pay 9 times more to the US Treasury to cover the wasteful spending that they will ask for. If 90% isn't enough, we can make it 99%.

How to get this passed? I have no clue. However, this applies to *all* other solutions to the problem, also.


. ** . The law allows the candidates to hire their relatives and spouses as consultants and send campaign donation money into their hands at very, very high levels. They hire some front comp. that hires their spouse and other relatives at a very high salary to do nothing.
.

[Politics_Observer]

@Steve_American

You know, I sort of feel like a Republican when I say this, but Joe Mancin is a DINO, a Democrat In Name Only. I mean if you want to be a Republican just run on the Republican ticket. He is more of a moderate Republican than he is a moderate Democrat.

[Steve_American]

@Steve_American

You know, I sort of feel like a Republican when I say this, but Joe Mancin is a DINO, a Democrat In Name Only. I mean if you want to be a Republican just run on the Republican ticket. He is more of a moderate Republican than he is a moderate Democrat.

I know he is a DINO.
I'm glad he is any kind of Dem.
Without him being a Dem, the the Repuds would control the Senate.
So, I'm glad.

What I'm sorry about is that the major part of the Dem. Party has sold out for the money the corps gives them.
What we need is --- "The Workers Progressive Capitalist Party" to sweep both the Repuds and the Dems into the dust bin of history. [Note: every word in its name is important, I mean every word.]
.

[Istanbuller]

He is an old school Democrat. Manchin believes in fiscal conservatism just like Democrats did in Clinton era and before that.

I agree with the statement that he is more of a Republican than a Democrat since Democratic Party has become the labour party of United States. It resembles how Liberal Part of the UK was replaced by the Labour Party.

[Steve_American]

He is an old school Democrat. Manchin believes in fiscal conservatism just like Democrats did in Clinton era and before that.

I agree with the statement that he is more of a Republican than a Democrat since Democratic Party has become the labour party of United States. It resembles how Liberal Part of the UK was replaced by the Labour Party.

Sir, I believe that you are a foreigner.
As such, you may not know that the Dem. Party was the party of labor starting in the 1870s (or before) when the Repub. Party was captured by the capitalists.

[The Repub. Party started out as the party in favor of the Homestead Act to give land to settlers in the west, the Landgrant Univ. system to educate some of the smart people of the masses for almost free, internal improvements to improve the transport infrastructure, build the transcontinental RR to link Calif. to the rest of the nation, and to stop the spread of slavery (which was a sort of civil rights thing). It also favored not enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act in the North. All of these items in its Platform made the Repub. a Progressive Party when it started. All of them became part of US law or its system one way or another. A huge number of internal improvement were made during the Civil War to supply Northern armies in the field, for example.]

It was Pres. Clinton who stopped the Dems from being the labor party of the US.