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Those who have the gold make
the rules
By Jim Wright
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Our Founding Fathers' battle cry was: Taxation without representation is
tyranny! Someone watching Congress tamely pass another gargantuan gaggle of tax
giveaways for the few most affluent among us might respond: "Oh yeah? How
about taxation with representation?"
It's evident that the only people with effective representation in Congress
these days are favor-seekers whose large contributions finance campaigns for
the pusillanimous crowd that now controls Congress and is in turn controlled by
the contributors.
They're the only ones, it seems, who get even rudimentary consideration, and
they get it tripled and overflowing.
I never thought I'd say this. For 50 years I've defended Congress as the branch
of government closest to the people -- the natural defender and protector of
ordinary people's rights.
Well, that was then. Times have changed. Campaigns are staggeringly,
astronomically expensive today. All but a handful of senators and
representatives depend desperately for their re-election chances upon large
contributors.
To whose opinions will they harken when in doubt?
If you think legislators are not beholden to their big campaign funders,
consider this: In 98 percent of the contested congressional elections of 2002,
the winner was the one who spent the most money.
People don't turn out any more for candidate speakings. They watch television.
Candidates don't discuss issues, beyond quickie market-tested slogans.
In this atmosphere, the candidate who can buy the greater market share of media
time will win -- too often through negative attack ads against the opponent.
Voters say they don't like negative campaigns, but the sorry fact is that they
work. If the hapless target of the slander is out of dough, there's no
opportunity to answer. That candidate, consequently, loses -- for want of cash.
See why incumbents and challengers court the known contributors? They're like
panting teen-agers begging autographs from entertainment idols. There's no
dignity and mighty little self-respect in this shabby process.
A prospective candidate's viability is measured, more and more, by how much
money that person can raise. That's the sine qua non.
Not brains, not ability, not dedication. Money!
Members of Congress privately confess to spending 30 percent of their time
every day on the telephone pandering for contributions.
Both parties maintain separate year-round headquarters in buildings on Capitol
Hill. Members of each party are encouraged to spend several hours there
telephoning daily, away from their offices, constituent mail and public duties.
This is, increasingly, the humiliating price of re-election.
So you wonder why there's not enough public money any more for first-class
public schools throughout America? For enough qualified teachers to keep
classroom numbers manageable?
In spite of your president's solemn pledge to "leave no child
behind," millions are being left behind this year for want of adequate
school funds. Yet there's enough to advocate doing away with the inheritance
tax to benefit the 1 percent of affluent Americans to whom it applies.
There isn't enough money, or a sufficient sense of urgency in Congress, to do
anything meaningful for affordable health care. Millions have to choose daily
between buying food or their evermore-costly prescription drugs.
But there's enough, apparently, to help corporations and big investors dodge
taxes on their dividend and investment income.
Not enough to keep some 600,000 Texas children this year from losing their
health insurance, preschool classes, school lunches. Enough for another layer
on top of President Bush's $1.3 trillion tax cuts of 2001, mostly for America's
top 20 percent?
Bush insists it's a great way to -- get this -- create jobs! Then why, two
years after Congress gave him the biggest (and most inequitable) tax cut in
history, does America have 2.1 million fewer jobs than we had then?
Time was when laws were written to protect the average citizen -- anti-monopoly
controls, securities regulations, safety and environmental precautions.
Lawmakers, ever more subservient to big contributors, have let most of those
laws lapse. Regulative agencies go underfunded, and administrators simply
ignore the laws that remain.
Why? Fairly plain, isn't it? Schoolchildren and their young parents, little
kids who need dental checkups, old people dependent on Social Security,
low-wage workers and the unemployed -- these folks don't routinely make big
campaign contributions.
Cynical. Sad. But true.
If we really care about democracy, we'd better demand a much more profound
overhaul of campaign finance laws than McCain-Feingold.
And plain people had better start learning, and remembering, who their friends
are.
Jim Wright is a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. PO Box
1413 Fort Worth, TX 76101