In America, Money Is the New Freedom of Choice
There was a time in America when voters selected candidates. Now that the Supremes (my name for the Supreme Court) allowed unlimited campaign spending for corporations, the fox picks the guardians of the chicken-coop. No matter which party wins state elections, gerrymandering now allows the candidates to select voters.
Is that progress, or what?
“I don’t care who does the electing, as long as I get to do the nominating.”
That’s the well-known quote of Boss Tweed, a politician who ran New York City politics in the late 1800s, as dominantly as Richard J. Daley ran Chicago a century later. I was there in Chicago for the Daley years. Long story short, Daley died in his bed and Tweed died in jail, but the principle lives on.
Now there have always been influencers in those murky back-rooms of politics, but it’s a new ball-game in this day and age, when the influencers are billionaires.
Billions are thousands of millions…mind-blowing numbers.
Ponder the cost of a House or Senate candidacy and the pocket-change a billionaire spends to buy a personal voice in congress. The average cost of a successful Congressional campaign is $2 million for a seat in the House and an eye-watering $17 million in the Senate. All this for an annual salary of $174,000.
If it seems strange to you that anyone would spend millions to gain such a ho-hum salary, you’re not alone. There are reasons, we suppose, and indeed there are. Prestige is one, but you have to be personally wealthy enough to carry on after the dust has settled, should you lose. There are, after all, winners and losers, and losers successfully poison the well for any further financial support.
Or, if you’re both smart enough and elected, you are welcomed into the long game.
The carrot is finally within reach and then it gets interesting, because there’s very little stress involved for such wide and influential access.
You will go home every weekend, your airline ticket paid for by the government.
And the definition of ‘weekend’ is very different in Washington.
You will fly. Drive or crawl into DC late on Monday and buzz off again early Friday, perhaps even on a late Thursday night flight. Staff will tell you of the votes scheduled and which way lobbyists have determined you will vote. There will be a variably fancy dinner-party on those scant evenings you’re in town, to which you are an honored guest, and whose attendance is greatly appreciated. Black-tie perhaps, but talent and expertise are not necessarily required. As Mark Twain once said (which proves some things never change),
“I never can think of Judas Iscariot without losing my temper. To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature, Congressman.”
And it’s not the congressman’s dough that got him there.
Boss Tweed set that standard way back in Twain’s days, and the current successful candidate is merely the standard-bearer.
There are perks. Did I mention the perks?
(Forbes) Here are five major benefits each member of Congress receives:
The House Speaker makes $223,500. Majority and Minority Leaders, and the President Pro Tempore all earn $193,400. Regular members earn $174,000.
Outside income is restricted to eliminate conflicts-of-interest, which is a laugh, because congresspeople have long made illegal insider trades on the stock market. To no one’s surprise, Forbes found significant loopholes in the ethics laws. Who knew that powerful members could be employed by federal contractors based in their districts?
For example, during a 13-year period, Vanderbilt University employed Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) and paid him $250,000 in total salary (2005-2018). The university received $2.6 billion in federal contracts, grants, and direct payments during his term. Vanderbilt is Cooper’s #1 campaign contributor at $135,261.
As a federal employee, members of Congress can qualify for a pension in addition to Social Security. For each year of service, that annual pension increases by about $2,000.
In 2004, the U.S. House spent $4.3 million on overseas travel. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) spent $23,000 on a one-week trip to Australia, while Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) spent $75,000 on an eleven day trip to Italy, Morocco and France. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) spent $14,357 in transportation costs to Germany, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, and France on a one-week trip.
Over the past 12 months, the Gallop public opinion congressional polling ranged from 17% to 31% approval. Why such disdain for Congress? One reason could be echoed by Mark Twain who famously stated,
“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in.”
And that’s the small stuff, the nitty and the gritty.
Campaign contributions, unleashed by a Supreme Court finding that corporations enjoy the same free-speech right as citizens, opened a flood-gate of money legally directed into the hands of congressional politicians. A wag said at the time, “I’ll believe a corporation is the same as a citizen when the state of Texas executes one.”
None the less, corporate contributors (and billionaires through their corporations) may now contribute unlimited amounts directly to legislators’ Political Action Committees, and the unused funds become personal assets. And so, I am compelled to ask Mr. Twain (with whom I hope one day to share a cigar) for one more personal comment:
“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
Some things change, but others are forever…
Sleep well, tucked in and protected by America’s Billionaire Class.