In the Huffington Post today, People For the American Way’s President Michael Keegan connects the extreme pro-corporate policies being pushed by federal and state GOP officials with the new liberty that corporations have to buy influence in elections:
One year after Citizens United v. FEC, when the Supreme Court opened American elections to a corporate spending free-for-all, elected officials in Washington and in statehouses around the country are pushing a stunning set of financial policies that, if passed, will provide a windfall for giant corporations at the expense of already-hurting individual taxpayers. Largely proposed under the guise of financial responsibility, these proposals threaten job creation and essential government services while ensuring the coffers of corporations remain untouched.
American taxpayers are beginning to fight back against some of the most egregious proposals, such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to bust public employee unions and the House GOP’s slashing of funding for women’s health care. But as long as corporations can buy unlimited political influence, these battles will only escalate and they will continue to be just as lopsided.
In the coming weeks, we will see the interests of corporate funders and the interests of individual taxpayers go head-to-head as Congress and the president attempt to hammer out a continuing spending resolution that will keep the government running for the rest of the year. The Republican House wants to block funds to reproductive health services, gut the Affordable Care Act, and even prevent the Environmental Protection Bureau from regulating pollution — all while costing an estimated 700,000 American jobs. The winners in the House’s proposal? Large corporations and the wealthy, who under the proposal astoundingly would not even be asked to give up a single tax loophole.
Read the whole thing here.