We, the People, call Pulitzer Prize winner David C. Johnston to testify on “how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at government expense and stick you with the bill.

Note: the following comes from Johnston’s “Free Lunch,” the second of three books detailing how the rich and corporations have used government, and anything else they could, to enrich themselves; in the process deliberately dismantling the middle class golden age of 1947-73.

Johnston: “Since 1980 it has become official policy to ensure..the rich receive benefits of government…Evidence that the elites have captured government and are milking it for their own benefit is so overwhelming that..you can find it as an unstated assumption in everyday news reports.”

Johnston: “The gross numbers and averages about economic growth obscure one overwhelming truth: The benefits of this bonanza flowed overwhelmingly to those at the apex of the economic pyramid.”..
 ”For the bottom 90% of Americans..annual income has been on a long, mostly downhill slide for more than three decades. the vast majority’s average income peaked at $33,000 way back in 1973. By 2005 it had fallen to a bit more than $29,000..$75 less each week..tax return data show.”

Johnston: “Of each dollar people earned in 2005, the top 10% got 48.5 cents..the top tenth’s greatest share of the income pie since 1929, just before thr Roaring Twenties collapsed into thre Great Depression.”…
 ”..keep in mind this one astonishing fact..from official government tax data: in 2005, the 300,000 men, women, and children who comprised the top tenth of 1% had nearly as much income as all 150 million Americans who make up the economic lower half of our population. Add the income the rich are not required to report and those 300,000 made more than the 150 million”

Johnston: “This growing concentration of income at the top is nothing like the distribution of income America experienced in the first three decades following World War II. Nor is it like that found in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Instead it resembles the distribution of income found in..Brazil, Mexico, and Russia…all four countries have a middle class that is under increasing stress.”

Johnston: “..distribution of income does not take place in a vacuum. It is also the product of government rules..written by people, not handed down from some immutable power.
  ”Rewriting the economic rules..in the past few decades has been done under the banner of “deregulation” and its promise..less government means more economic growth. the term itself is a misnomer. No society is free of regulation.
 ”In the past quarter century or so our government..enacted new rulwes that..created not only free markets, but rigged ones. These rules..weakened and even destroyed consumer protections while increasing the power of the already powerful..”

Johnston: ”The richest Americans and the corporations they control shaped and often wrote these new rules and regulations..The rich and their lobbyists have taken firm control of the levers of power in Washington and..state capitals while remaking the rules in their own interests. They..imbued private organizations with the power to make rules that few outside..the process understand, but that influence the distribution of income. These same people..just happen to be the primary source of..campaign donations..Politicians, as lawmakers, enact the rules. As presidents and governors they appoint..administrators who decide when to enforce the rules and many..judges who interpret them.”

Johnston: ”In America..the long expansion of who plays a role in deciding the rules has ended. the base of influence has begun to contract. In part..because of the campaign finance system, which transfers power to those who donate and who steer donations. In part..because advances in human knowledge have made the economy so much more complex that fewer people understand, or have time to learn about, the issues.”

Johnston: ”Beginning with the New Deal..and especially, with bipartisan consensus after World War II, our elected leaders worked to build and strengthen the middle class.”…
 ”But in the last quarter century or so, we..turned away from these policies…our government has been adopting rules that tilt the playing field in favor of the rich, the powerful, and the politically connected. These rules accomplish this by taking from the uninformed, handcuffing law enforcement, squelching whistleblowers, and making it ever harder for those..wronged to get redress. The new rules have taken special aim at those supposed economic criminals, the regulators.”

Johnston: “One of the new rules has been to make sure..there are far too few cops on the beat on Wall Street..”..
  ”Steve Jobs..was awarded millions in stock options at a board of directors meeting that never took place.”..
“Jobs was hardly alone in the stock option scandals..Many executives took money from shareholders through deliberate, calculated actions..They differ from bandits only in that they wielded pens..instead of pointing pistols..Their techniques were subtle..but for society they are worse than street robbery, for their actions undermine the legitimacy of society’s rules in ways that bandits cannot..”..

Johnston: “In this era of rules for the rich we act as if poverty is a free good..not scarce but readily available..Coping with the foul effects of poverty costs us half a trillion dollars a year..[more]..than what we spend on Social Security benefits. Poverty wastes minds and spirits, robbing all of us of opportunity. When poverty fosters crime it costs us more than ..harm done to our wallets and..safety..It makes us less trusting, less willing to see ourselves as one people..”..

Johnston: ”Under what theory of morality do we grant to those already in a superior economic or legal position ever more power, especially when that power derives from rules in fine print that defy normal human understanding?”

Johnston: ”Usury laws that protected consumers against rapacious lenders existed until 1978. Now they are gone because of a Supreme Court decision. In that case the high court warned Congress it needed to enact new laws to protect borrowers. That warning was ignored…our government has set forth onerous new rules that reward those who prey upon the poor.”

[Note: this is only a BEGINNING of crimes Johnston discusses. He names some perps – YOU know them well – their names are, have been, in the news.   The :Preamble of the Constitution says the purpose of American government is to “..promote the general Welfare..”  YOU will notice that, most especially since 1980 – concern for promoting “..the general Welfare..” has been dropped in favor of promoting the Welfare of the rich and their corporations. Besides empty talk, what are. YOU. going to do about it??????? Are. YOU. an INFORMED voter??? – Informed, not mislead. Johnston has provided YOU with a small sample of the truth – the rest is up to YOU. ]

We, the People, call David Cay Johnston to testify abut “The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich – and Cheat Everybody Else.”

[Note the following is from Johnston’s “Perfectly Legal.” He is a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a finalist for three other Pulitzer Prizes}

Johnston: “The clear trend in America the past two decades [1980-2000] has been to cut taxes on the rich and raise taxes on..the middle class and upper middle class to make up part of the difference. this was done largely by collecting excess Social Security taxes decades in advance of when benefits would be paid. this trend is growing as the alternative minimum tax hits middle class families.”

Johnston: “The income tax is collected only against reported income..the real issue about our tax system. The rich have myriad ways to avoid recognizing income for tax purposes, most of them perfectly legal..the past decade has been a period of lax tax law enforcement in which tax evasion was openly advertised..the vast majority of cheats are richer today..”

Johnston: ‘We have systematically taken away the ability of most Americans to save by taxing them too heavily..expanded the capacity of those with the most to save even more by lowering their taxes.”….
 ”Our tax system is a good part of the reason..incomes of the richest 1%, and especially the top-earning 13,400 American families, have soared while the bottom 80%..have seen their incomes stagnate for three decades.”

Johnston: “When taxes are examined overall – including state and local income, sales, and property taxes – America has something close to a flat tax. The top fifth..pays just a penny more out of a dollar in taxes overall than the poorest fifth, 19 cents versus 18 cents.”

Johnston: ”The most overwhelming need is to simplify the tax code..complexity..benefits the rich, the well advised and the well connected. Much of the complexity is because of congressional favors for the political donor class, whose access to power benefits them at the expense of those who cannot afford to buy a steady stream of campaign contributions to ensure their senator or representative takes their calls.”

Johnston: “Corporations..lowered the portion of their profits that go to federal income taxes from 26 cents of each dollar in 1993 to 22 cents in 1998, even though the official corporate income tax rate remained unchanged at 35%. For almost three decades corporate profits have been growing one third faster than corporate income taxes.”

Johnston: ”Corporations are busy moving intellectual property such as patents, trademarks and the title of the company logo to entities organized in tax havens..then pay royalties to use their own intellectual property, allowing them to convert taxable profits in the United states into tax-deductible payments sent to Bermuda…You pay for this through higher taxes, reduced services or your rising share of our growing national debt. You also pay for it through incentives in the tax system for companies to build new factories overseas and to reduce employment in America.
 ”These trends to lower taxes on wealthy people and on corporations are aided by new rules allowing capital and goods to flow freely around the world, while immigration and employment laws limit any mass movements of workers and ever-tougher rules against union organizing give capital an advantage over labor in setting wages.”

Johnston: “..state legislatures starting in 1991 have passed laws that..took away the most powerful incentive for self-policing by the corporate professions of law and accounting. These laws, allowing “limited-liability” partnerships and corporations, help explain the wave of corporate cheating that swept the country in the past decade…Congress..passed a series of little-noticed laws that shift risks off corporations and the super rich..onto most Americans.”

Johnston: “That some of these issues..have been littler reported..is not surprising. Most news is a report of the official version of events..Few politicians..mention how the tax system is being rigged to benefit the super rich at the expense of everyone else.. Many journalists rely for expert quotes on a dozen well-financed nonprofits..in Washington to promote policies that primarily benefit their rich donors. their aim is to convince us..these policies are actually in everyone’s best interest. The rise of marketing posing as policy is one of the great and subtle advances in the never-ending effort to manipulate the news media.”

Johnston: “Most Americans depend on wages for their income, wages that are tracked closely by the government and leave little opportunity to escape taxes. The super rich are different. They largely control what the government knows about their incomes..their friends in Congress have slashed budgets for inspecting the tax returns of the rich and super rich.”

Johnston: ”..the ax system is being turned on its head. Since at least 1983 it has been the explicit, but unstated, policy in Washington to let the richest Americans pay a smaller portion of their incomes in taxes and to defer their taxes..a stealth tax cut, while collecting more in taxes from..the middle class.”…
 ”The tax system is causing the benefits of American society to flow up and pool at the top..official government statistics show just that.”…
 ”The tax system is becoming a tool to turn the American dream of prosperity and reward for hard work into an impossible goal for tens of millions of Americans and into a nightmare for many others…being used to create a nation with fewer stable jobs and less secure retirement income..being used by the rich, through their allies in congress, to shift risks off themselves and onto everyone else..perhaps worst of all, our tax system now forces most Americans to subsidize the lifestyles of the very rich, who enjoy the benefits of our democracy without paying their fair share of its price.”

Johnston: ”The steady erosion of law enforcement budgets for white-collar crime..emboldened those who would have behaved better if the chances of getting caught were significant..A pollster named Frank Luntz persuaded Republicans that the single best way to get votes was to attack the Internal Revenue Service. He urged them to call for tax relief – being careful not to say “tax cuts…The IRS budget has been restrained so severely that only one in five..tax cheats it identifies is pursued..The other four pay nothing.”
 The advantages..many of these laws, regulations and budget cuts give to corporations and the rapacious rich went unreported in the major news media. As publishers cut news budgets, junk journalism expanded because covering opinions and official leaks about sex scandals was far less expensive than digging out complicated facts about the economy, budgets and taxes.”

Johnston: ”The executives and investors who wanted..changes were not in a rush..many..were patient, spending money for decades to get their way one law, one rule, one fewer regulation at a time..with..campaign contributions, they wielded enormous influence. In the 2000 elections for Congress, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found that more than 80% of identifiable political contributions came from just one in 625 Americans. By the 2002 elections, the ratio was down to just one in 833, roughly equaling the top tenth of 1 percent.”

[Note – REREAD what Johnston has said above. Also!!!!! go to the charts on pages 22, 27, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 74, 75, 76, 96, 115, 294.!!!!!!! BUT, MOST OF ALL. - go to the chart on page 114: ”Middle Class Pays So Rich Can Pay Less”!!!!!!
    How gullible are YOU???  Do YOU believe the fairy tale of “trickle down economics”??? The unspun data from the Census, the I.R.S., the GAO, the CBO pre-1980 vs. post-1980 show YOU to be the fool if YOU do.
    Thanks to corrupt Supreme “Court” decisions – 1976 “Buckley,” 1978 “Bellotti,” and 2010 “Citizens United” – bribing Congress is now officially “free speech.”   And – since the rich have money, they have more “free speech.”  This is often said to be. “access” – as in bribed Congress Critters listen to them, especially hear their “pain” at being “over taxed” – as in “over taxed” to share their wealth with “undeserving” members of the lower 90% – that”s YOU.
       NOTHING WILL CHANGE – unless – YOU demand a return to what made America great in 1947-73 – high taxes on the rich. The stress the bottom 90% feels is close to entirely the fault of the rich and corporations. 
   Johnston lays it out for you – read this book. And wait for the next two posts. on subsequent Johnston books – “Free Lunch”.  how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at government expense [and stick you with the bill]; and “The Fine Print”. how big companies use “plain English” to rob you blind..’}-

We, the People, call Gordon Lafer to testify about ”How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time.”

Lafwer: “This..is the legislative agenda of the one percent – a concerted, coordinated, full-funded attack by some of the richest individuals and most powerful corporations in the country. Its aims are to concentrate an ever-larger share of income and wealth in the hands of the most privileged, eliminate institutions that give working people leverage in the labor market, defund public services, lower expectations of what workers should be able to demand from..employers and citizens from..government, and shrink the reach of our democracy in order to lock in place unpopular policies and forestall a populist backlash.”

Lafer: Conservative activist William Kristol, in a 1993 memo, outlined the dangers of Clinton’s health care plan. Successful health care reform could fundamentally reshape the way people think about the economy, raising their sense of what the public through its government could demand of the private sector. A successful health care initiative would mark: ”the establishment of the largest federal entitlement program since Social Security. Its success would signal the rebirth of centralized welfare-state policies at the very moment we have begun rolling back that idea in other areas…But the long-term.. effects will be even worse. It will relegitimize middle-class dependence for “security” on government spending and regulation. It will revive the reputation of the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle-class by restraining government.”

Lafer: ”..growing inequality and increased hardship for American workers are..the result on an intentional policy agenda pursued by the largest and most powerful lobbies in this country – those representing the..biggest corporations.”

Lafer: ”Citizens United”. “ushered in a new legislative era, shaped by..unlimited corporate spending on politics.” Eleven states became 100% controlled by Republicans and “an unprecedented wave of legislation aimed at lowering labor standards and slashing public services.” By 2015, 15 states legislated restrictions on public employees’ collective bargaining, 12 states restricted minimum wage, 4 eased child labor limits, 19 imposed new caps on unemployment benefits.

Lafer: ”In addition to..overall increase in spending, the 2010 elections marked the beginning of a fundamental shift in control of electoral politics….the power of party officials has been supplanted..by private, corporate-funded advocacy groups.”…
 ”..it is not simply that politicians have become more dependent on corporate campaign contributions…the very machinery of elections has increasingly shifted from party to private hands.”

Lafer: ”..both ALEC and the Chamber..support cuts in “entitlements” such as Social Security, unemployment insurance and food stamps; push for more trade agreements on the NAFTA model; seek to shrink public funding for schools; oppose paid sick leave and workplace safety regulations; work to undermine labor unions and restrict their participation in political debates”.. [and favor]..forced privatization, ”right-to-work” laws..abolition of minimum-wage and prevailing-wage laws..”

Lafer: foreign sales account for 48% of S&P 500’s total corporate revenues; 6 major ALEC members get 60% of their revenue outside the United States. ”This marks a new departure in American politics: some of the most influential actors in the legislative process have political interests that are increasingly disconnected from the fate of the country’s citizens.”

Lafer: ”The senate majority leader..who previously had pledged his opposition to RTW, was pulled into a private room with DeVos and a dozen other big money donors and told to “grow a set and move this legislation.” Undecided GOP lawmakers were warned they would face well-funded primary opponents if they did not support the bill and were promised financial backing if they faced a recall election..”

Lafer: ”The campaign to transform public education brings together multiple strands of the agenda..The teacher’s union is the single biggest labor organization in most states – thus for both antiunion ideologues and Republican strategists, undermining teacher’s unions is of central importance. Education is one of the largest components of public budgets, and in many communities the school system is the single largest employer – thus the goals of cutting budgets, enabling new tax cuts for the wealthy, shrinking the government, and lowering wage and benefit standards in the public sector all naturally coalesce around the school system.
 ”..there is an enormous amount of money to be made from privatization of education – so much so..every major investment bank has established special funds devoted exclusively to this sector.”

Lafer: ”..Citizens United has led to a proliferation of vehicles for untraceable political spending, making it frequently impossible to connect the dots between corporate actors and legislative outcomes..the corporate agenda is carried out through an integrated network that operates on multiple channels at once..”

Lafer: ”Most important, corporate lobbies have sought to create a system of selective democracy in the very process of lawmaking itself. From 2011 to 2015, 22 states established new laws making it more difficult for citizens to vote.. Typically, these laws target lower-income residents..Democrat turnout was significantly hampered..states are explicitly restricting citizens’ ability to vote for policies opposed by corporate interests.”

[Note; all this, and MUCH MORE detail is found in Lafer’s book, “The One Percent Solution.” Thus he illustrates WHY the rich and corporations ARE THE prime threat to democracy – everywhere. The corporate plan to change the 50 states’ laws to favor them is discussed here, as well as in many other books on this web site; by the NUMBERS we have provided; by the criminal news headlines provided; by quotes provided.  The EVIDENCE is. OVERWHELMING, begun in the 1970s, accelerated in the 1980s, expanded in the 2000s, the well-documented conspiracy by the rich and corporations to destroy the middle class 1947-73 golden age is STATISTICALLY. beyond dispute.]

The following is from Thom Hartmann’s 2/1/24 The Progressive Populist article.

“The White Republican base has been so lied to and abused over the past 40 or so years that they’ve become easy marks for the predators in both big business and the GOP…”

“In the years immediately leading up to the 1970 creation of the EPA, pollution in America had gotten so bad, it was impossible to ignore……so Nixon did what was probably the only good deed for America of his presidency and helped create the EPA in 1970”

“The wealthy oligarchs of American industry – particularly fossil fuel and chemical industry oligarchs – hated the EPA from the get-go. Environmental regulations cut into their profits..It was almost as infuriating as having to pay a 74% income tax on everything hey earned after their first $3 million [in today’s dollars]>”…

“..America’s industrialists got serious about taking tobacco lawyer Lewis Powell”s Memo advice: the rich needed to step up and start buying off politicians and judges, seize control of the media, and use their endowments to stock universities with right-wing professors while pushing out the old-line liberals>”

“They got a big boost in 1976 [Buckley] and 1978 [Bellotti] when five Republicans on the Supreme Court ruled..billionaires and corporations buying off politicians was no longer considered criminal bribery: ..it was, instead, “Constitutionally protected First Amendment free speech” and corporations were no longer legal fictions but fully “persons” who could claim protections under the Bill of [Human] Rights.”
 ”Lewis Powell himself..wrote the 1978 “Bellotti” decision giving corporate “persons” – including foreign corporations – the right to pour unlimited amounts of “dark money” into political campaigns. [Five corrupt Republicans on the Court would double down on this in 2010 with “Citizens United.]”..

“..the fossil fuel billionaires and their fellow travelers got organized. They set up and funded policy think tanks..each one devoted to the two main goals of the billionaires: deregulation and tax cuts.”

“The challenge was convincing Americans..regulations were bad things, and..rich people should have their taxes cut..That top tax bracket..was the main thing preventing billionaires from grabbing all the money that was instead..going into the homes and pockets of unionized working-class people.”
 ”The think tanks got to work…Money flowed to Republican politicians…A small army of commentators was organized, some of them scientists and economists willing to to on-the-take, to convince Americans..regulations weren’t something that would protect average people but were..instruments of socialism or communism.”
 ”The agencies like the EPA that were doing the regulating would, henceforth, be known as the “deep state,” a designation so creepy ..few would choose to defend them.”

“After Ronald Reagan stopped enforcing antitrust laws in 1983 and Clinton deregulated..media in 1996, an army of radio and TV hosts ..[existed]..with over 1,500 local right-wing radio stations and Fox “News” rising in prominence. By 2000, Republicans were openly campaigning on platforms promising deregulation along with giant tax cuts for the “job creator” billionaires.”

“Now sufficiently indoctrinated to believe up is down, Republican voters became the nation’s useful idiots.”

“..think tanks ..[said].. climate change was a hoax, and they believed..Trump..[said]..the economy during his tenure was “the best in the history of the world”..and they believed..He said he needed to cut taxes on the morbidly rich by around $2 trillion, and..Republican voters nodded their heads..”…..

“The indoctrination of the Republican voter is so complete that when then-President Trump gutted over 100 environmental regulations – making it more toxic and dangerous to live..in America..there wasn’t a peep. Most Republican voters don’t even know it happened..”…..

“So why don’t Americans know who’s manipulating our political system and why?…

“The answer is simple: billionaires who favor unpopular, ultraconservative economic policies, and work actively to advance them..stay almost entirely silent about those issues in public.

“America’s billionaires got the tax cuts they wanted: instead of paying 74% like before Reagan, or even the high 50% range like most European billionaires, the average American billionaire pays around 3%..” 
 [Note; read that again – 3% income tax, not a typo – wouldn’t YOU. like to pay 3% federal tax??????]

“The fossil fuel billionaires also got much of the deregulation they wanted…and the Supreme Court justices they’ve bought off with million-dollar vacations and parental homes will soon debate whether to gut the Chevron deference and thus end the EPA’s ability to regulate..fossil fuel industry altogether.”

“..over $50 trillion has been transferred from..paychecks and homes of working class people into..money bins of the top 1% while our environment continues to deteriorate.”

So – my fellow Americans – is there. ANY. doubt about who has been manipulating the American political and economic systems – mostly since 1980????????? ”Follow the money”. said “Deep throat” in the “Watergate” scandal – it works here too. WHO got paid off – campaign contributions, and all the many other forms of “dark money”???  Research exactly. WHO in Congress pushed the bills that sabotaged the 1947-73 American system that actually worked for average Americans???????  WHO pushed for the corrupt “justices” that changed the rules?????? 
    In which alternative universe of “democracy” are billionaires paying 3% federal tax – while YOU pay much more?????????????? In which alternative universe of “democracy” would ANY. “court” - in the face of catastrophic global warming – weaken the EPA’s ability to regulate THE. prime contributor to a crisis which could end normal human inhabitation on this earth??????????

    WHY. don’t. YOU know – and vote – more on these issues???????? IF the world still exists in 100-200 years – what will people thing and say about  ”adults”.  in 2024 who allowed the perps to get away with such an obvious and blatant crime, and their own. DOCUMENTED manipulation???????????/  
      Is THIS the ultimate example and truth on the effectiveness of “alternative facts”????????????

Consider the following principles, from Marjorie Kelly’s. “The Divine Right of Capital”;

I. The Six Principles of Economic Aristocracy”
1]. Worldview: “In the worldview of corporate financial statements, the aim is to pay stockholders as much as possible, and employees as little as possible.”
2]. Privilege: ”Stockholders claim wealth they do little to create, much as nobles claimed privilege they did not earn.”
3] Property: ”Like a feudal estate, a corporation is considered a piece of property – not a human community – so it can be owned and sold by the propertied class.”
4] Governance: ”Corporations function with an aristocratic governance structure, where members of the propertied class alone may vote.”
5] Liberty: ”Corporate capitalism embraces a predemocratic concept of liberty reserved for property holders, which thrives by restricting the liberty of employees and the community.”
6]. Sovereignty: ”Corporations assert that they are private and the free market will self-regulate, much as feudal barons asserted a sovereignty independent of the Crown.”

II. The Six Principles of Economic Democracy”
1]. Enlightenment: ”Because all persons are created equal, the economic rights of employees and the community are equal to those of the capital owners.”
2] Equality: ”Under market principles, wealth does not legitimately belong only to stockholders. Corporate wealth belongs to those who create it, and community wealth belongs to all.”
3]. Public Good: ”As semi-public governments, public corporations are more than pieces of property or private contracts. They have a responsibility to the public good.”
4]. Democracy: ”The corporation is a human community, and like the larger community of which it is a part, it is best governed democratically.”
5]. Justice: ”In keeping with equal treatment of persons before the law, the wealthy may not claim greater rights than others, and corporations may not claim the rights of persons.”
6] {r}Evolution: ”As it is the right of the people to alter or abolish government, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish corporations that now govern the world.”

Note: The question is simple: did the Founders abolish a king and nobility, only to turn themselves over to a “royalty” of rich and corporations? The answer is clearly “NO!!!” The word “corporation” is NOT in the Constitution. All current “corporate rights” have been GIVEN them by dubious Supreme Court rulings. In the early United States, corporations were given limited “rights’ for a short time. Corporations were not trusted with unlimited powers. 
 Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution: ”No title of Nobility shall be granted by the United states..”
     So – why should Americans subject themselves to a corporate royalty that seeks to control their lives, that seeks to become more powerful than the REAL government, that seeks to control America’s wealth?
     YOU either accept a “We the People” government – or – YOU agree to be dictated to by a corporate plutocracy – that would like to run America’s economy by “The Six Principles of Economic Aristocracy.” What’s it going to be??????

We, the People, call Charles Ferguson to testify on the Predator Nation, how corporate criminals, political corruption, and the hijacking of America have led to 202x. Mr. Ferguson is also the diretor of the Academy Award-winning film, “Inside Job.”

Ferguson: ”Over the last several decades, the United states has undergone one of the most radical social and economic transformations in its history. Finance has become America’s dominant industry, while manufacturing, even for high technology industries, has nearly disappeared.  The financial sector has become increasingly corrupt, with the widespread fraud that caused the housing bubble going completely unpunished.  Federal tax collections as a share of GDP are at their lowest level in sixty years, with the wealthy and highly profitable corporations enjoying the greatest tax reductions.  Most shocking, the United states, so long the beacon of opportunity for the ambitious poor, has become one of the world’s most unequal and unfair societies.”

Ferguson: “..there is now abundant evidence of widespread, unpunished criminal behavior in the financial sector…major U.S. and European banks have been caught assisting corporate fraud by Enron and others, laundering money for drug cartels and..Iranian military, aiding tax evasion, hiding..assets of corrupt dictators, colluding in order to fix prices, and committing many forms of financial fraud.”

Ferguson: ”The evidence is now overwhelming that over the last thiry years, the U.S. financial sector has become a rogue industry. As its wealth and power grew, it subverted America’s political system.. government, and academic institutions in order to free itself from regulation. As deregulation progressed, the industry became ever more unethical and dangerous, producing ever larger financial crises and ever more blatant criminality. Since the 1990s, its power has been sufficient to insulate bankers not only from effective regulation but even from criminal law enforcement.”

Ferguson: ”The financial sector is now a parasitic and destabilizing industry that constitutes a major drag on American economic growth.”…

Ferguson: ”If financial executives know..they will go to jail if they commit major frauds that endanger the world economy, and..their illegal wealth will be confiscated..they will be considerably less likely to commit such frauds and cause global financial crises.”..

Ferguson: ”..the rise of predatory finance is both a cause and a symptom of an even broader, and even more disturbing, change in America’s economy and political system. The financial sector is the core of a new oligarchy that has risen to power over the past thirty years, and that has profoundly changed American life.”..

Ferguson: ”Starting around 1980, American society began to undergo a series of deep shifts. Deregulation, weakened antitrust enforcement, and technological changes led to an increasing concentration of industry and finance. Money began to play a larger and corrupting role in politics. America fell behind other nations in education, in infrastructure, and in ..performance of many of its major industries. Inequality increased…America was turning into a rigged game – a society that denies opportunity to those who are not born into wealthy families, one that resembles a third-world dictatorship more than an advanced democracy.”..

Ferguson: ”..over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy..”

Ferguson: ”..the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful..industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy. These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, ..the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry,”

Ferguson: ””If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism.”

Ferguson: ”..having squandered trillions on mismanaged wars, tax cuts designed especially for the rich, a gigantic real estate bubble, and massive bailouts for its banks, the United States is confronting major fiscal problems..”..
  ”The principle reason for this is..politically powerful interest groups have been able to block reform…both political parties are ignoring, lying about, and/or exploiting the country’s very real economic, social, and educational problems. this process is starting to generate an additional danger: demagoguery. As America deteriorates, religious and political extremists are beginning to exploit..growing insecurity and discontent..this has principally taken the form of attacks on federal government, taxes, and social spending..sometimes..taking more extreme forms: antiscientific fundamentalist Christianity; attacks on education, the teaching of evolution, vaccines, and scientific activity; and demonization of various groups such as immigrants, Muslims, and the poor..”

Ferguson: ”Over the past quarter century, the leaders of both political parties have perfected a remarkable system of remaining in power while serving America’s new oligarchy. Both parties take in huge amounts of money, in many forms – campaign contributions, lobbying, revolving-door hiring, favors, and special access of various kinds….both parties..mobilize support because they skillfully exploit America’s cultural polarization. Republicans warn social conservatives about..dangers of secularism, taxes, abortion, welfare, gay marriage, gun control, and liberals. Democrats warn social liberals about..dangers of guns, pollution, global warming, making abortions illegal, and conservatives.”..

Ferguson: ”The vast income accumulated by the narrow slice of super-elite at the top of the wealth pyramid has created a kind of global “canopy economy”. that has lost its connections to nations and people they sprang from. At the very tp, the most senior executives, rainmakers, and traders at global banks and corporations routinely pull down eight-figure pay packages. These are people with four or five mansions around the world, yachts, private jet services anywhere at any time, limousines, servants, access, power.”..
 The economic impact of this inequality is now astonishingly high. The wealth and power of America’s new elite is both a clue to and a cause of America’s tepid recovery from the financial crash. Companies are wallowing in cash, but Average Americans don’t have money to spend. Labor productivity has improved dramatically; growing by an almost unheard-of 5.4% in 2009.”..

Ferguson: ”..average wages ..[are].. declining..[because].. educations and skills of..American[s] are losing two races – one with technological progress, and another with.. skill levels of workers in other, lower-wage nations. Education is the critical variable here. In the Internet age, America can be a high-income, full-employment nation only if its workforce has education and skills superior to those available in India, China, and elsewhere at far lower wages..Americans with master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford or MIT still do very well. But most Americans can’t participate in the high-technology economy because most of America’s educational system is a mess. High school and college graduation rates are vastly inadequate…high school in America is a joke compared with high school in South Korea or Taiwan.”  

Ferguson: ”But another huge reason for..decline of the American economy, and of average American wages, is the shifting balance of power between America’s new oligarchy..federal government, and the rest of the population. Investment decisions, wage rates, and government policies are determined largely by people in the canopy economy. This has two very deep consequences.. “
 ”The first is..well-run, successful American companies are investing, but not in people, and not in the United States. Ceos see far better opportunities in purchasing information technology systems and in using inexpensive overseas labor.”..

Ferguson: ”.America’s new elite has obtained much of its extreme wealth not through superior productivity, but mainly via forced transfers from the rest of American, and world, population.  These transfers were frequently unethical or even criminal, and were enormously aided by government policies that reduced taxes on the rich, allowed industrial consolidation through lax antitrust enforcement, protected inefficient firms, impeded protests from unions, kept worker’s wages low, permitted massive financial sector frauds, bailed out the financial sector when it collapsed, and shielded corporate crime from law enforcement action. Those government policies were, with varying degrees of subtlety, bought and paid for by their beneficiaries. “

Ferguson: ”In this process, one industry stands above all others: financial services. In no other industry has the amorality, destructiveness, and greed of the new elite been so naked. Much of the new wealth of the U.S. financial sector was acquired the old-fashioned way – by stealing it. With each step in the process of deregulation and consolidation, American finance gradually became a quasi-criminal industry, whose behavior eventually produced a gigantic global Ponzi scheme – the financial bubble that caused the crisis of 2008. It was, literally, the crime of the century, one whose effects will continue to plague the world for many years..”

Note: please remember terms used here: ”quasi-criminal,” parasitic drag on the economy, ”a rogue industry,” ”the core of a new oligarchy,” turning America into “a rigged game,” ”an amoral financial oligarchy,” global ‘canopy economy”.   HOW can Ferguson say these things, in print?  Why did his film, “Inside Job,” win an “Academy Award”???  Again – DO YOUR OWN, legitimate, mainstream research.  Find the STATISTICAL basis for what Ferguson, and many others on this site have said: something very radical, very bad, very destructive to the bottom 90% of Americans after 1980. Those were were alive in the golden American middle class era of 1947-1973 are dying off – the WITNESSES to what was a global phenomenon: a deliberately planned sharing of a nation’s wealth among all of its people – not just the rich. 
   What Ferguson and many other truthful commentators are telling you is this: the middle class 1947-73 golden era was, IS,  being DELIBERATELY DESTROYED.  For one simple, very old human failing:  GREED. 
   This can be stopped, reversed……BUT…… YOU. have to want to. Do YOU??? Tired of. YOUR. kids being screwed over by the greedy top 1% and their corporations??? Then , intelligently VOTE.  Intelligently !!!!!  Which political party has been against most reforms and laws that help YOU. since. 1933????  THEY. STILL. DO !!!ooo

WE, the People, call Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson to testify on ”How Washington Made the Rich Richer – And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.”

Hacker & Pierson: “Winner-take-all has become the defining feature of American economic life..our current crisis is merely the latest in a long struggle..[between].. American democracy and American capitalism..a 30-year war..Strep by step and debate by debate, America’s public officials have rewritten the rules of American politics and the American economy in ways that..benefited the few at the expense of the many..a transformation that has fundamentally changed what government does, and whom it does it for.”  [***Stop – reread this again. Bombshell!!! Read the rest of Hacker & Pierson’s testimony here, then their book – and THINK – this tells YOU why 1980-202x America is different from the 1947-73 middle class STATISTICAL golden age - it was deliberately done – by the top 1% 7 their GREED]

Hacker & Pierson: Ground breaking research by economists Thomas Piketty and Emanuel Saez revealed three essential clues: #1: hyperconcentration of income. ”According to Piketty & Saez’s revealing evidence regarding pre-tax income, we have gone from Broadland to Richistan – from a world in which most of the nation’s income gains accrue to the bottom 90% of households [the pattern of the economic expansion of the 1960s] to one in which more than half go to the richest 1% [the pattern of the last economic expansion from 2002 to 2007]. #2: sustained hyperconcentration. ”The rising share of the national income captured by the richest Americans is a long-term trend beginning around 1980. It is a trend..that is not obviously related to the business cycle or the shifting partisan occupancy of the White House. #3: limited benefits for the nonrich. ”..the economy stopped working for middle and working class Americans..even for the most highly skilled individuals just below the very top rungs of the income ladder.” and ‘..American households are working many more hours today [2010] than they were in the late 1970s.”  [STOP!!! – “..the economy stopped working for middle and working class Americans..” DELIBERATELY – top 1%. GREED – statistics, NOT opinions!!!!! ]

Hacker & Pierson: ”Starting in the 1970s..people in charge of designing and implementing the tax code increasingly favored those at the very top..and continued well after the intellectual case had crumbled for..supply-side theories that had justified [Reagan’s] big tax cuts. It resulted from a bidding war in which Democrats as well as Republicans took part, and involved cuts in estate and corporate taxes as well as income taxes. The one big regularity was an impressive focus on directing benefits not just to the well-to-do but..the superrich.”

Hacker & Pierson: ”Given public concerns about tax breaks for the wealthy, politicians have..opted for more subtle means of achieving similar ends. One is slashing back enforcement of tax law..Roughly one out of every six dollars owed in taxes goes unpaid..hundreds of billions a year..tax evasion by the rich is ..[most of it].. Another way public officials havew cut taxes of upper-income filers without passing new laws is by leaving in place loopholes through which rich Americans and their accountants shovel lightly taxed cash..”

Hacker & Pierson: ”Beyond the stunning shifts in taxation..there were three main areas where government authority gave a huge impetus to the winner-take-all economy: government’s treatment of unions, the regulation of executive pay, and..policing of financial markets.” Business blocked a 1978 labor reform bill with a Senate filibuster; the Reagan administration was openly hostile to labor. ”Around 1980..executive compensation started shooting up, and the pace ..[accelerated]..in the 1990s.” American politicians greatly aided this, “..in sharp contrast to the experience abroad ..[in both pay and power].. ”Between 1975 and 2007, wages and salaries in ..[finance]..roughly doubled as a share of the national earnings”..and.. “No industry has a comparable talent for privatizing gains and socializing losses.”..regulatory restrictions on banking had been reduced below their pre-New Deal levels by the late 1990s.”

Hacker & Pierson: ”By the end of the 1978 campaign, more than 60% of corporate contributions had gone to Republicans..A new era of campaign finance was born: Not only were corporate contributions growing ever bigger, Democrats had to work harder for them. More and more, to receive business largesse, they had to do more than hold power, they had to wield it in ways that business liked.”  [!!!!!!!!!!! Come on people – what is this saying?????????]

Hacker & Pierson: the 1978 tax bill cut capital gains tax from 48% to 28% – a Democrat Congress, a Democrat president.
This “signaled a dramatic shift in governance in Washington.”
 ”By historical standards, the 1981 “Economic Recovery and Tax Act” was an astonishing acceleration of the 1978 formula of big tax cuts for business and the affluent.”
  “ERTA was Ronald Reagan’s greatest legislative achievement, a fundamental rewriting of the nation’s tax laws in favor of winner-take-all outcomes. But in a deeper sense it was the nature of the conflict that had changed the most. Both parties were now locked in a determined struggle to show who could shower more benefits on those at the top.”

Hacker & Pierson: ”Behind the declining responsiveness of Washington to those outside the winner’s circle is a complex tale of battered unions, distracted public interest groups, politically ascendant evangelicals, unmoored voters, and a compromised, and increasingly endangered, new media.”

Hacker & Pierson: “..ideological polarization turns out to be mostly an elite affair. Most Americans..are just not that far apart..Polarization primarily reflects not the growing polarization of voters, but the declining responsiveness of American politicians to the electoral middle.”
 ”..partisan polarization has been very one-sided: Republicans have moved substantially to the right, while Democrats have moved modestly to the left..”

Hacker & Pierson: TV, modern polling, political consultants “fundamentally altered the nature of running for office: who was favored and who was not, how candidates spent their time and crafted their message, and how campaigns themselves were organized. Their most measurable effect..was to substantially increase the role of money in politics..from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, average real expenditures by incumbents in the House roughly tripled..money became a prerequisite for electoral viability. Since it also served as a signal of viability, large war chests could be used to attract new contributions and deter possible rivals..permanent, relentless fund-raising became a fixture of American politics..” [Time Out!!! – WHO do YOU think THIS favors??????? – it isn’t YOU!!!!!!!!!]

Hacker & Pierson: ”..radical rebranding of entitlements from..traditional meaning of earned benefits to one reflecting a something-for-nothing mentality..In this new language, both welfare and Social Security were “entitlements” and Washington needed to replace ‘the politics of entitlement with a new politics of reciprocal responsibility.”
  [THINK!!! – which Party & “side” consistently talks about “personal responsibility”???? as in you’re guilty}

Hacker & Pierson: ”..the modern GOP..became astonishingly radical..saw high-end tax cuts as the solution to any problem..over more than two decades, both the geographical and organizational bases of the party shifted in ways that reinforced its commitment to an extreme economic platform..many Republicans revealed a thinly veiled desire to do more than combat LBJ’s ‘War on Poverty’. Their ambitions included repeal of huge swaths of not only the New Deal but the Progressive Era: no Social Security, no effective minimum wage, no progressive taxation, no support for employer-provided health care, almost no financial regulation. They sought ..to reestablish the policies of the Gilded Age to mirror the emerging Gilded Age economy.”  [Reread this very carefully, very carefully – because this is GOP intent to undo the rules, norms, laws of what makes America a modern “democracy.” ]

Hacker & Pierson: “The intensified connection of business to the GOP was reinforced by a second organizational development: the emergence of a cadre of activists devoted to making tax cuts the durable, unquestioned foundation of Republican doctrine..they now focused on the recruitment and support of public officials devoted to the cause..Two groups were at the heart of this effort: Grover Norquist’s “Americans for Tax Reform” and Stephen Moore’s “Club for Growth”..the objectives of these two groups were avowedly radical. Norquist described his goal as a 50% reduction in government as a share of GDP..Stephen Moore was a strong advocate of a flat tax – eliminating all progressivity from the tax code – an idea that was beyond the pale in the 1980s..”

Hacker & Pierson: ”The 2001 tax cuts..included a ‘time bomb’..that would make the Alternative Minimum Tax much worse, more than doubling the number of Americans who were expected to be hit with it by 2007..the bill reduced the normal income tax rates for high-income taxpayers but did not alter the AMT to reflect this…By expanding the reach of the AMT, Republicans could use the money..to ‘finance’ more tax cuts..and claim..the AMT was an unanticipated problem beyond their control.”
  ”Essentially, the GOP held upper-middle-class American’s feet to the fire to finance tax cuts for the super-wealthy and to crank up pressure for yet more tax cuts.”   [GOP screwed YOU to help the top 1% – again}

Hacker & Pierson: ”The contrast between the aftermaths of 1981 and 2001 could not be more telling. Republicans in congress..eagerly embraced the Reagan tax cuts, but many were willing to change course once large deficits appeared. Twenty years later a ballooning deficit had nothing like the same effect – Republicans were more committed than ever to holding the line on taxes. As red ink began to flow, they continued to work energetically to push the revenue line lower.”

Hacker & Pierson: G.W. Bush, Chris Cox, Harvey Pitt enabled corporate violations. ”Enron’s collapse was the most spectacular..but the story, again and again, was the same..executives looted their companies..Companies were brought to ruin, employees lost their jobs, and workers saw their pensions disappear..The evidence that lax rules too often left foxes guarding the henhouse was overwhelming.”

Hacker & Pierson: ”What we now take for granted as a feature of the ‘system’ – that 60 senators representing just a tenth of the U.S. population can potentially stop legislation from becoming law – is..quite new..Only since the early 1990s has there been something approaching a de facto “rule of sixty.”..Norms that had frowned on the use of the filibuster began to erode….You didn’t just block reform with a filibuster; you bloodied your opponent. Tying Washington up in knots made the majority look ineffectual and fueled popular disdain for politics..hugely beneficial to the minority.”

Note; a future posting likely will expand on Hacker 7 Pierson’s “American Amnesia”.  “How the War on Government led us to Forget What Made America Prosper” ]

We the People call Jonathan Chait to testify to the danger of “Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America.”

Chait: ”..American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few..possibly insane. The scope of their triumph is breathtaking Over the course of the last three decades {1980 -}, they have moved from the right-wing fringe to the commanding heights of the national agenda. Notions that would have been laughed at a generation ago – that cutting taxes for the very rich is the best response to any and every economic circumstance, or that it is perfectly appropriate to turn the most rapacious and self-interested elements of the business lobby into an arm of the federal government are now so pervasive..”
 ”The result has been a slow-motion disaster. Income inequality has approached levels normally associated with Third World oligarchies, not healthy Western democracies. The federal government has grown so encrusted with business lobbyists that it can no longer meet th great public challenges of our time.”

Chait: ”..supply-side economics is not merely an economic program. It’s a totalistic ideology. The core principle is that economic performance hinges almost entirely on how much incentive investors and entrepreneurs have to attain more wealth, and this incentive in turn hinges almost entirely on their tax rate..cutting taxes – especially those of the rich..is always a good idea.”…..
 ”..supply-side economics offered Republicans a potential very appealing way to win votes..The GOP would be transformed into the party of Santa Claus, with Democrats..stuck playing the Grinch..Kristol breezily confessed..”political effectiveness was the priority, not he accounting deficiencies of government.”…

Chait: ”Over the past thirty-five years..the ascent of the supply-siders – American business has grown both vastly more politically powerful and vastly rapacious in the way it wields that power. The rise of the business lobby has distorted – and finally, corrupted – the Republican Party and the conservative movement.””….
 ”..the whole purpose of the business lobby changed..developed what can only be called a class consciousness. As Edsall wrote..”The dominant theme in the political strategy of business became a shared interest in the defeat of such bills as consumer protection and labor law reform, and in the enactment of favorable tax, regulatory and antitrust legislation.”

Chait: ”At the outset of Clinton’s first term, the giants of the business lobby..all favored universal health care…business turned sharply against this reform..because conservatives demanded it. Republicans, for both partisan and ideological reasons, wanted to kill health care reform..”

Chait: ”..the K Street Project..Republicans gave these lobbyists extraordinary deference in shaping legislation. Republicans demanded total loyalty from K Street in return. The business lobby and the GOP would no longer be separate parties with overlapping interests but partners in an ironclad alliance.”

Chait: ”As Norquist sees it, Reaganism means, above all else, cutting taxes, especially for business and wealthy individuals..Norquist has described himself..as a “Market-Leninist.” In Leninist fashion, he sees politics as a Manichean struggle between..”our time” and “their time.”

Chait: ”Niskanen found..the premise of the “starve the beast” strategy was wrong..It was backwards. Since 1981, tax cuts tended to spur higher levels of spending, while tax hikes tended to produce lower spending.”

Chait: ”..dishonesty has become integral to the Republican economic agenda..the GOP, and the conservative movement, have embraced an economic agenda far out of step with the majority of the voting public. Republicans..can’t win office or get their plans enacted into law..without fundamentally misleading the public. Lying has become a systemic necessity.”…..

Chait: ”..studied every recorded vote in the House and Senate from 1970 to 2003 and found..Republicans have moved sharply to the right while Democrats have scarcely moved left at all.”……

Chait: ”The right’s great triumph has been to take ideas once correctly considered absurd and make them seem normal. The perverse happenings..in Washington are the result of an asymmetrical fight between a moderate party and a radical one, between one party that clings to the social mores that once prevailed in the capital and another party that pushed them aside.”

    [note: the above discussion consists of excerpts from Jonathan Chait’s “The Big Con. Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America.”    As always on this site – we invite YOU to engage in truthful research from mainstream. acknowledged real historians and experts; to consult unspun statistics from the Census Bureau, the IRS, GAO, CBO for REAL numbers behind why Chait could say these things. Compare what existed in American law, government, society, business mores and culture. Above all: find the 1945-1979 and then, the post-1980. distribution of wealth in America; the tax burdens. Find the difference between the 1933-1979 “Roosevelt Revolution” and the 1980-2024 “Reagan Revolution.” Which era better reflected the Constitution”s Preamble: ”We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare…[create this government].” 
   With a straight face, tell us how cutting the taxes of the most privileged persons works “to promote the general Welfare.”  Explain why the national debt ballooned from $1 trillion before Reagan took office, to now a reported $34 trillion. The supply-side Reagan-Bush II-Trump tax cuts blew up the national debt. The bloated national debt is now over $600 billion a year itself. $600 billion that will NOT be used to “promote the general Welfare.” ]

Weekly, if not daily, reminders of the abusive, cruel, corrupt, and criminality of the Far Right are readily available in HEADLINES!!!!! Below are just some:

1]. “EBay is fined $3M for workers who sent live spiders to harass writers” ”EBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct.” [ Alanna Durkin Richer; Associated Press; 1/12/2024 ]

2]. “U.S. says Volkswagen’s effort to prevent wrongdoing needs work” ”Nearly three years after Volkswagen admitted to a vas emissions cheating scheme..admitted programming millions of diesel cars..” [Jack Ewing; N.Y. Times; 2/28/2018]

3] ”Panama Papers show how U.S. citizens hid millions” ”..the firm explained: “He needs asset protection schemes, which we are trying to sell him.” Mossack Fonseca managed eight shell companies and a foundation on the family’s behalf, moving at least $134 million through seven banks in six countries – little of which could be raced directly..” 
[Eric Lipton, Julie Creswell; New York Times; 6/6/2016]

4]. “California recovers $20M from JPMorgan”. “..a subsidiary of JPMorgan..pulled down an extra $73 million by exploiting a small wrinkle in the state’s electricity market.” [ 7/31/2012 ]

5] ”Medtronic to settle suit for $85 million” ”..class action lawsuit that alleged the company misled investors regarding its Infuse bone-growth device.” [ James Walsh; Mpls Star Tribune’ 3/31/2012 ]

6]. “IRS: Taxes evaded on $43 million” ”A 79-year-old Palm Beach woman made tax evasion history..when she admitted to failing to tell the Internal Revenue Service about a whopping $43 million she had stashed in foreign accounts..one of roughly five dozen taxpayers who have been charged..since 2008..as many as 20,000 U.S. citizens had hidden $20 billion..overseas..” [ Jane Musgrave; Palm Beach Post; 1/9/2013
    ******** THIS is my all time favorite tax evasion story – shows you the entitlement thinking of many
         rich Americans – at age 79, can she begin to spend $43 million before death?

7]. “Judge: Rail talks can be included in lawsuits” ”The lawsuits said the railroads conspired to boost prices starting in 2003 by imposing fuel surcharges and pocketing billions..in profits.” [ Josh Funk; Associated Press; 2/23/2021 ]

8]. “Juul to pay 6 states $462 M to settle e-cigarette cases”. “Juul lit a nationwide public health crisis by putting addictive products in the hands of minors and convincing them its harmless.” [Karen Matthews; Assoc. Press; 4/13/2023]

9] ”Big Banks ring up costly punishment” ”Giant banks have racked up more than $4 billion in U.S. penalties in a wave of settlements..the penalties..cast fresh light on the persistence of financial professionals misbehavior..”
   [ Lananh Nguyen; Bloomberg News; 11/4/2020 ]

10] ”Senate panel: Banks helped hedge funds dodge taxes”. “Two giant banks helped at least a dozen hedge funds skirt full payment on more than $100 billion worth of stock trades..” [ Kevin Hall; McClatchy Newspapers; 7/28/2014 ]

11]. “Overdraft fees often exceed cost of purchase”. “..Banks profit by collecting more than half their checking account income from these fees.” [ Josh Boak; Associated Press; 8/1/2014 ]

12]. “Health firm pays for Medicare overbilling”. “..settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging..14 of its hospitals unnecessarily admitted patients and..”upcoded” patient diagnosis, exaggerating their illnesses in order to receive more Medicare dollars.” [ 8/4/2018 ]

We, the People, cll the award-winning author of 25 books in a dozen languages, Thom Hartmann, to testify on the American oligarchy, and how it has already sabotaged democracy.

Hartmann: The American governmental system has four branches, three in the Constitution, the fourth protected by the First Amendment. ”The media have always been the initial pivot point..for control of public opinion and, through that, control of the government itself ”..telecommunications laws from the 1920s and 1930s kept most newspapers, cable systems, internet providers, and radio and TV stations locally owned to prevent oligarchs from asserting singular control over information and news..”
 ”That all changed in 1996 ..[with].. the Telecommunications Act..the result of tens of millions of dollars of telecom industry lobbying and thus was supported by bought-out majorities of both parties in the House and Senate..”
  “The Act wiped out those protections for local media, turning our nation’s cable systems, internet service providers, newspapers, and radio and TV stations over to a small handful of media oligarchs.

Hartmann”. “.. statins owned by local folks, but they all had local news operations that were enthusiastic about investigating and outing local corruption, and they provided vital public service when there were local emergencies…’
 ”The broadcasting of actual news was required by the FCC through..the Fairness Doctrine, which required stations to “program in the public interest”..requiring both national and local news at least every hour on radio, and at least one hour [split 50/50 local/national] during prime time on TV
 ”The Fairness Doctrine also required stations that aired “editorials from the station’s ownership or management to be balanced with “equal time” by an outside source offering an opposing point of view.”

Hartmann: ”The result of these two sets of restrictions was a diversity of viewpoints, basic standards of honesty and fairness for news operations, the strengthening of democracy through an educated and informed electorate, and a local programming focus that served the needs of every community in America.”
 ”In 1987, Ronald Reagan ordered the FCC to stop enforcing the Fairness Doctrine, and in August 2011 it was removed from the FCC’s rules by the Obama administration.”…..
 ”..unprofitable news became very profitable infotainment, and radio and TV stations no longer had to “pay” for their monopoly use of our public airwaves with “programming in the public interest.”
 ”Clear Channel, a regional owner of a handful of radio stations, went on a buying spree right after Clinton signed that legislation and ended up owning 1,225 stations in 300 cities and towns, dominating the radio markets of the nation’s 112 major media markets.”
 ”Several other big companies jumped into the fray, with one, Cumulus, owning more than 400 stations across the country, including some of the nation’s largest.”…
 ”The result is that an entire city can have multiple radio stations with few to no local people actually broadcasting live on the air.”…

Hartmann: ”..a few years back, I met one of the owners of Cumulus in the offices of a U.S. senator, who inquired if the network..would be putting progressive programming on any of their 400-plus stations.”
 ”No way,” the billionaire network owner told us both. He said he’d never put shows on his stations that were “hostile to business” and wanted “to raise my taxes.”…
 ”A group of Salem-employee talk hosts, most prominently Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt, broadcast daily hard-right-wing shows from coast to coast, and I asked him if he’d consider adding a progressive show like mine.”
 ”Not a chance,’ he said. ”We’re a Christian company, so we’d never consider a liberal on our airwaves.” When I protested that I was a Christian myself, he said it wasn’t possible for a liberal to be a true follower of Christ.”

Hartmann: ”..in every nook and cranny of America you can tune across your radio dial and find an oligarch-friendly conservative talk show host..”…
 ”Our TV markets are similarly concentrated, with the most notorious television monoply being Sinclair, which owns more than 200 TV stations across the country. Newspapers are similarly concentrated in ownership, with few local papers of any significance surviving, as are the cable TV and internet service providers.”
 
Hartmann: ”The outcome of all this corporate ownership of media in nearly all forms is that the story line preferred by oligarchs – many of them media oligarchs – is constantly available to Americans, but the voices that would challenge oligarchy and promote democracy are limited to struggling nonprofit entities like Pacifica Network [radio] and Free Speech TV.”
 ”Roughly 90% of American media [by viewership, readership, and listenership] is owned by only six companies. A small handful of media executives decide what we’ll see, hear, and read..”..

Hartmann: ”Control of a big enough chunk of the fourth estate, essential to launching and maintaining oligarchy, has largely been accomplished and has been the single greatest factor in the crisis of widespread supoort for pro-oligarch, anti-democracy policies and politicians.
 ”The next step may be even more ominous, as on May 29, 2020, Trump’s …FCC…authorized any foreign oligarch [or government, via an oligarch] to own any U.S. media, doing away with a previous 25% ownership cap.”…
 ”In the 2010 U.S.Supreme Court case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in his dissent that he decision “would have accorded the propaganda broadcasts to our troops by ‘Tokyo Rose’ during World War II the same protection as speech by Allied commanders. More pertinently, it would appear to afford the same protection to multinational corporations controlled by foreigners as to individual Americans.”…

Hartmann: ”For rule by the rich, aka oligarchy, to really and truly seize control of a nation, that nation must first
Halegalize bribery of politicians by the oligarchs themselves. We are now fully there..”…

Hartmann: ”In 1907, at the urging of Republican president Theodore Roosevelt, Congress passed the Tillman Act, which made it a felony for any corporation to contribute anything of value to any campaign or politician running for federal office. Most states adopted similar laws..”..
 ”Following the Nixon bribery scandals of 1974, Congress passed a number of “good government” laws limiting the ability of oligarchs or their corporations to fund federal politicians, as well as expanding a 1966 law that provided for public financing of presidential elections.”

Hartmann: ”..most of all that crashed and burned in 1976 and 1978 when, in a pair of decisions known as Buckley and Bellotti [ Buckley v. Valeo and First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti], the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that when American oligarchs owned politicians, it wasn’t corruption or bribery but, instead, First Amendment-protected “free speech” [Buckley] that was also available to corporations [Bellotti].
 ”Those decisions unleashed a flood of money that in the 1980 election just two years later swept Ronald Reagan into power and kicked off the modern era of American oligarchy.”
 ”At the state level, a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC] was incorporated as a nonprofit in 1975 by conservative oligarchs and the businesses that made them rich. Today it has more than 2,000 state legislators – all but a handful of them Republicans – who meet several times a year with hundreds of corporate lobbyists to take corporate-lobbyist-written “model legislation” that ALEC-funded legislators then introduce into their state legislatures.”