My thesis is that government is not, in fact, broken. It’s just listening to the wrong people, and it’s listening to all of this quiet influence. So it’s a very robust operation that operates kind of under the surface.
I don’t believe that there is anybody who denies climate change in the Democratic caucus. Everybody accepts that it is a real problem.
The bottom line is this: A private company and/or its industry allies should not knowingly lie to the American people about the harms that are caused by its product.
If Republicans start losing their seats because they’re climate deniers, that is a very salutary signal.
When I deliver the message to a cross section of Rhode Island that democracy is broken because special interests have relentless power – which prevents politicians from compromising despite popular support on an issue – I don’t have any pushback.
Citizens United is a disgrace of a decision, holding that corporate money is corporate speech and entitled to the same First Amendment protection as human speech. As a result, corporations now can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence our elections – often in secret, without any public disclosure.
America has long stood before the world as an exceptional country.
I’ve met students across Rhode Island who rely on Pell Grants. They work hard, play by rules, and are doing everything they can to get the education they need for the jobs of tomorrow.
According to the IRS, the wealthiest 400 Americans, who earned an average of roughly $270 million in 2008, paid an average tax rate of just 18.2 percent that year. That’s about the same rate paid by a single truck driver in Rhode Island. It’s not right, and we need to restore fairness to our tax code.
Educating our children and giving them the skills they need to compete in a global economy is a smart investment in our country’s future.
In many ways, the rotten effects of dark money are seen less in what we do than in what we don’t do.
Pages: 1 2
