*** “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentration in the hands of a few. But we can’t have both.” [ Justice Louis Brandeis ]
This post is intended to begin to open YOUR eyes to the magnitude of political influence amassed by America’s wealthiest people. It is expressed in tax code corruption, in laws not enforced, in laws written by and for the rich, in ‘supreme court” rulings like “citizens United,” and much more.
Following are some excerpts from “How Billionaires Took Over American Politics”. [Beth Reinhard, Naftali Bendavid, Clarence Morse, Aaron Schaffer; Washington Post Weekly; 11/23/25]. If YOU care about America, American society, American government, American justice – this is a MUST read.
1] “In an era defined by major political divisions and massive wealth accumulation for the richest Americans, billionaires are spending unprecedented amounts on U.S. politics…leading to a record-breaking surge of donations by the ultrarich in 2024. Since 2000, political giving by the wealthiest 100 Americans to federal elections has gone up almost 140 times..”
3] “..in three landmark decisions, starting with 2010’s Citizens United vs FEC, federal courts gutted post-Watergate campaign restrictions, clearing the way for donors to contribute unlimited money to elections. As a result, U.S. politicians are more dependent on the largesse of the billionaire class than ever before, giving one-four-hundreth of 1% of Americans extraordinary influence over which politicians and policies succeed…driving up campaign costs and eroding public confidence in American democracy.”
9] “..at least 17 billionaires, collectively worth more than $1 trillion, claimed coveted seats in the Capitol Rotunda – a historic concentration of wealth that seemed to herald a new class of American oligarchs, there to celebrate a president known for publicly rewarding his allies and punishing his opponents…..”It was so striking and so out in the open that the rich people are running the country”…….”
11] “..under Trump, the first billionaire president, the ultrawealthy have set up shop inside the corridors of government more openly than ever before…Trump’s Cabinet is the wealthiest in U.S. history..”
***. “Of all the forms of tyranny the least attractive and most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy.” [ Theodore Roosevelt, Republican 26th U.S. President ]
2] “Over the past quarter-century, political, legal and economic changes have reshaped the relationship between wealth and political power in America. Economists say wealth is now more concentrated at the very top than at any time since the Gilded Age.”
4] “Donations are not the only path to power for the ultrawealthy; following Trump’s lead, some billionaires are parlaying their financial clout into public office. At least 44 of the 902 U.S. billionaires on Forbes magazine’s 2025 list, or their spouses, have been elected or appointed to state or federal office in the past 10 years..”
5] “America’s 902 billionaires are collectively worth more than $6.7 trillion, the most wealth ever amassed by the nation’s ultrarich… A little more than a decade ago, there were half as many billionaires in the U.S., with a total worth estimated at $2.6 trillion when adjusted for inflation.”
*** “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
[ Benito Mussolini ]
6]. “Overall, billionaires have rallied behind Trump’s Republican Party. More than 80% of the federal campaign spending by the 100 wealthiest Americans went to Republicans…Trump himself raised 15 times as much from the 100 richest Americans in 2024 than he did during his first presidential campaign, in 2016.”
7] “..over the past half-decade, many of tech’s wealthiest titans rebelled against the Biden administration’s criticism and policing of their industry…”
8] “When Trump first ran for office in 2016, he pitched himself as someone whose personal fortune made him uncorruptible. [ stop laughing !!!], and he promised to break the power of elites in Washington and “drain the swamp.” [stop laughing, you’re going to hurt yourself !!!]
***. “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.” [. Adam Smith – yes – THE. Adam Smith. ]
10] “Billionaires didn’t acquire their influence in D.C. overnight. President Bill Clinton aggressively courted Wall Street, then signed a sweeping financial deregulation and a trade deal strongly backed by wealthy Americans. President George W. Bush also relied heavily on affluent donors, then pushed through tax cuts that benefited the rich, as well as the Troubled Asset Relief Program to bail out big banks. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first presidential candidate in the post-Watergate era to reject public campaign financing and instead raising huge sums from private donors.”
12] ‘..Trump has championed a deregulation and tax cut agenda that is bringing huge benefits to wealthy Americans..DOGE..slashed the regulatory state that polices – and infuriates – billionaires, along with their business activities. The IRS has lost thousands of workers, which cripples efforts to pursue tax cheats…The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created to ensure that financial institutions treat their customers fairly, is on its deathbed. .Trump’s main legislative achievement, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, locked in lower tax rates for corporations and allowed the children of the super-rich to inherit $15 million tax-free, while cutting Medicaid programs that benefit the poor and the elderly.”
***. “You know, the only trouble with capitalism is capitalists. They’re too damn greedy.”
[ Herbert Hoover, Republican. 31st U.S. President ]
A future post will concern material from “Tax The Rich!” [ Morris Pearl, Erica Payne and The Patriotic Millionaires]. It will feature “Tax Tricks,” “Corporate Tricks<” Tax Lies. We leave YOU with this quote to chew on:
“According to the study [Martin Gilens], not a single policy supported by the majority of voters but opposed by the rich and the business community ended up being passed into law.”
With Justice For All 