7/16/2012

Power for Sale

In 2010 Rick Scott spent an estimated $75 million of his own money to successfully run for Florida Governor. He clearly bought the governor's office.

Now with hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on the presidency, could we have the first president bought by special interests? Robert Reich says American Democracy is for sale and the American people are the biggest losers.n
I’m not letting Democrats off the hook. Democratic candidates are still too dependent on Wall Street casino moguls and real casino magnates (Steve Wynn has been a major contributor to Harry Reid, for example). George Soros and a few others have poured big bucks into Democratic coffers. So have a handful of trade unions.
 But make no mistake. Compared to what the GOP is doing this year, Democrats are conducting a high-school bake sale. The mega-selling of American democracy is a Republican invention, and Romney and the GOP are its major beneficiaries.

Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration.