When the True Media reported that the latest Repeal Obamacare Putsch is being spurred by the fury of Republican donors, I was, well, furious. This GOP-controlled Congress has spent most of its term trying to repeal our health care law with nothing to replace it. Improvements are out of the question. It’s a tax reduction wolf in sheep’s clothing.
These Senators are so beholden and beaten down that they cower before their corporate overlords. Money in politics has made the very idea of representation laughable. Our system is grotesque, a freak show unspooling daily, reality TV with consequences. The wealthy GOP backers have been promised repeal for seven years, and they’ve paid a pile of money for it. With repeal failing, the donors are shutting the spigot. The pols are groveling to save themselves from financial ruin, from having that carpet of cash pulled out from ‘neath their feet. This is their last chance.
The exception proves the rule. John McCain, diagnosed with brain cancer, no longer cares about the money, and he’s virtually alone in opposing the bill. He’s calling for bipartisanship, a pitch for unity in the waning days of his career. Maybe he thinks that this will become his legacy, pushing Sarah Palin into the second paragraph.
It would be naive to think that money in politics is new. Its impact was never so blatant, its minions so obsequious. They’re dispensing with hearings and an analysis by the impartial Congressional Budget Office. It’s yet another Bum’s Rush that affects one-sixth of the country’s economy. Desperation’s in the air. Failure has few friends and fewer financiers.
Evan Sarzin is the author of Hard Bop Piano and Bud Powell published by Gerard & Sarzin Music Publishing. He writes and publishes Revolted Colonies (http://revoltedcolonies.com).