Despite the 2008 Wall Street crash and government promises of reform, the old back-scratching ways of special favors and influence are again in vogue – as if they were ever out of style, writes JP Sottile.
Geithner Gets Morgan-Chase Gravy
Tag: Money in Politics
Clinton’s Experience: Fact and Fantasy
From the Archive: Hillary Clinton’s win in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses and her big lead in South Carolina restore her status as Democratic frontrunner but lingering doubts about her honesty and her coziness to Big Money continue to dog her path…
How the Democratic Party Got Lost
Though the political odds still favor Hillary Clinton, her stumbling candidacy and dependence on vast sums of special-interest money reflect the weaknesses of the Democratic Party, which lost its way in the 1980s and 1990s, forgetting its historic role as…
The Big Issue Is Big Money
The biggest falsehood of Hillary Clinton’s campaign is to call Bernie Sanders a “single-issue” candidate, since he has actually addressed many issues. But Michael Winship says there’s some truth in the charge because Sanders has identified Big Money as the root…
Lobbying’s Mile-High Plateau
Special-interest money in Washington may have peaked but it looks more like it has plateaued at mile-high altitudes, with hundreds of millions of dollars continuing to fill the coffers of lobbying firms each year as they sign up ex-members of…
The Clintons’ Paid-Speech Bonanza
Exclusive: With primary voting set to start next month, one of Hillary Clinton’s remaining hurdles is convincing Democratic voters that she is not beholden to Wall Street and other wealthy interests that have fattened her family’s bank account with tens…
America’s Dying Democracy
Democracy, as a noble principle of self-governance, is fading away in big ways and small, with special interests seizing control of both media and politicians and with the people increasingly manipulated and misinformed. In this impassioned appeal, Bill Moyers calls…
Political Carnival Pays Off for TV
As the U.S. presidential race especially on the Republican side descends into the political equivalent of a rowdy reality TV show, the TV networks are thrilled by higher-than-expected ratings and loads of political ads bought by secretive groups, say Bill…
How the Puppets Beg
Congress may have averted a government shutdown but it has done so at the expense of making evermore concessions to its super-rich puppet-masters whose strings are both patently obvious and increasingly invisible all the better for the puppets to beg,…
Congress Plays Santa to the Rich
As Congress rushes to wrap up business before the Christmas holidays, it traditionally dangles pricy ornaments favors to rich donors on an omnibus bill called a “Christmas tree,” one activity that has survived the current legislative dysfunction, writes Michael Winship.