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Saturday, January 26th, 2013

Senators’ Secret Plan to Give Amgen Half a Billion in Fiscal Cliff Deal

Author:     BILL MOYERS and MICHAEL WINSHIP
Source:     The Raw Story
Publication Date:     Friday, January 25, 2013 12:55 EST
 Link: Senators’ Secret Plan to Give Amgen Half a Billion in Fiscal Cliff Deal
Stephan:   This is an example of the bipartisan corruption destroying American democracy. America is being sold, piece by piece to an uber-class. That's what the whole privatization push is about. We are becoming, some would say have already become, except for the vote which introduces a measure of randomness, a Fascist state. Nothing but the vote is going to save us from this. And you can already see in the Republican RedMap plan a concerted push to grievously degrade one citizen, one vote. We are mostly sitting around sucking our thumbs while are country is being stolen from us.

The inauguration of a president is one of those spectacles of democracy that can make us remember we’re part of something big and enduring. So for a few hours this past Monday the pomp and circumstance inspired us to think that government of, by, and for the people really is just that, despite the predatory threats that stalk it.

But the mood didn’t last. Every now and then, as the cameras panned upward, the Capitol dome towering over the ceremony was a reminder of something the good feeling of the moment couldn’t erase. It’s the journalist’s curse to have a good time spoiled by the reality beyond the pageantry. Just a couple of days before the inaugural festivities, The New York Times published some superb investigative reporting by the team of Eric Lipton and Kevin Sack, and their revelations were hard to forget, even at a time of celebration.

The story told us of a pharmaceutical giant called Amgen and three senators so close to it they might as well be entries on its balance sheet: Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), Democratic Senator Max Baucus (MT), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and that powerful committee’s ranking Republican, Orrin Hatch (UT). […]

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