What the Supreme Court's McCutcheon Ruling Means to the TPP Problem
Channel: Economy In Crisis
Date: 2014-04-30

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The Supreme Court McCutcheon v. FEC ruling removed one of the few remaining barriers to complete control of our democracy by millionaires and billionaires. Combined with Citizens United, McCutcheon will ensure that the richest Americans can spend unlimited sums to influence our elections and our government.

Citizens United opened the floodgates to spending by wealthy individuals and corporations, and now McCutcheon is widening that channel. The court ruled that because money is considered speech, the government cannot restrict the total amount any individual can give to campaigns. The base limit of $5200 per individual to any one candidate in an election cycle will stay intact for now, but the court ruled that there can no longer be a limit on how much an individual can give to all campaigns in total. In a post-McCutcheon America an individual donor could give $5200 to every candidate for federal office in the entire country.

Meanwhile, President Obama -- with all the clout and prestige of the office of the Presidency of the United States -- is trying to sell the American people on the newly proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now being put together not by our legislators, but by a group of 600 paid lobbyists. According to leaked documents, they are taking the worst aspects of our old agreements and applying them to even more competitor countries, but no one knows for sure as it is being done secretly. 

With so much happening in the dark, behind closed doors - against the will of We the People and for They the Corporations, it is clear who running this once grate nation and why our middle class is evaporating.