The OWS movement for social/economic justice is the most critical movement of our generation.  However, Wall Street won't change without Congress mandating it, and by demanding that Congress bite the hand that currently feeds them we could be headed for a bloody stalemate.  Before someone gets killed, perhaps we should consider an action plan that creates a win/win for citizens and politicians. 

                            A Surprising Solution                               

Political Finance Reform provides an action plan to end "Legalized Political Bribery".  By reallocating just 1/1000th our federal revenue, we can remove corporations from politics, save our planet, middle class and democracy.   

The Corporate "Coup d'Etat"

 

Most politicians cannot gain office, maintain office, live-like or retire-like world class leaders without corporate financial dependence; and good policy no longer wins elections, made obsolete by corporate sponsored political ad campaigns, made possible by 21st century media technologies our founding fathers could never have anticipated. 

Considering all of this, if you were an ambitious 21st century politician, who would you be loyal to? 

  

Gaming American Politics

The Most Profitable “Industry” on Earth

 

The result: (David Stockman, 60 minutes 10/10)

 "In 1985, the top five percent of the households, wealthiest five percent, had net worth of $8 trillion.  Today, the top five percent have net worth of $40 trillion.  The top five percent have gained more wealth ($32 trillion in 25 yrs) than the whole human race had created prior to 1980."

 

Who would argue that half of that 32 trillion dollars, if not more, was acquired at the expense of increased government deficits, reduced government services, damaged economy and ecological destruction? It appears that by Gaming American Politics the corporate elite have profited at least $640 billion/year extra ($16 trillion / 25 yrs) for 25 consecutive years!

If we reverse engineer what corporations provide politicians for that control, we find it to be less than $3.5 billion per year.

A profit of $640 billion/yr on a $3.5 billion investment provides a 15,000% return on investment.  That is not a misprint. 

The annual profits from this "industry" far surpass American oil industry profits combined, making "Gaming American Politics" the best investment and most profitable industry on earth.  Fellow citizens - this is what we're up against.  

 

Congress: America's Least Trusted  Institution

  

Resulting public polls show a corresponding 30-year decline  in the Congressional approval rating (from 36% in 1982 to 11% in 2010) and that "80% of Americans are convinced that Congress is too influenced by special interest money."

The bottom line: the odds of being decimated by terrorist attack: one in millions.  By acts of Congress: one in five.  Forget about terrorists.  Fear Congress.

In the face of this middle class citizens from the left, right and center have everything in common: develop a strategy to "reform the way we finance our politics."

Politicians understand there are two ways to effect change:  mandate it – or incentivize it.

The voting masses have tried for decades to mandate loyalty from our politicians via the threat of voting them out.  In the 21st century, losing political office only means making millions working for corporations - so that's an empty threat - and throwing Congress in prison is entirely impractical and will never happen because they make the laws.

Given this reality, clearly it’s time for something entirely new - like cutting our losses and pursuing the opposite strategy of incentivizing loyalty.  This proven strategy works exceptionally well for private industry - so why not copy them?

 

 

Proposed Constitutional Amendment #28

"Political Finance Reform"

PFR Definition: 

A single mechanism to incentivize Congress to eliminate their financial dependence on, and all financial connections to, private non-taxpayer funded income and benefits, (including but not limited to special interest groups, corporations, labor unions and individuals), by replacing with tax dollars all personal and professional income and benefits, both during service and after, with strict enforcement laws, thereby ending legalized political bribery.

For 1/1000th our federal revenue, we can likely get this done - here's how...

POLITICAL FINANCE REFORM

                  Dependency Equates To Loyalty                 

There's only 537 federally elected officials causing all of this pain. We are not helpless.

Why not apply the "standard business practice" of "spend-a-little-to-save-allot", by making a "competitive bid" to pay our federal politicians the $3.5 billion directly, cutting out the corporate middlemen, saving hundreds of billions of dollars per year, restoring political loyalty to the middle class - and save democracy for our children?

 

Professional Revenue:  

The cost to finance political campaigns has averaged $4 billion per election year the past three election cycles (’04, ’06, ’08).  Clearly we must finance elections ($2 billion per year) from public funds.

Despite many attempts we have failed to accomplish this, most likely because Congress has other, far more lucrative financial connections to corporations that they refuse to disrupt - and corporations do NOT want to lose this control.

 

Personal Revenue:

Perhaps the key to finally achieving "campaign finance reform" is to also replace with tax dollars the personal wealth politicians acquire from corporate stock portfolios; highly coveted corporate perks and war chests; and their multi-million dollar job-loss safety-net of corporate lobbying, all of which can exceed Congressional salaries.

Political Finance Reform goes several steps beyond just campaign finance reform alone by addressing all revenue/benefit streams simultaneously - by budgeting an additional $1.5 billion per year to:  #1 add a zero to Congressional pay  #2 greatly improve Congressional pensions - with longevity/performance based incentives

That could incentivize change.

 

In exchange, Congress must illegalize all of their financial connections to private financing during service and after.  With strict enforcement laws, 100% financial dependence could provide their undivided loyalty, saving middle class taxpayers trillions of dollars, our planet and democracy. 

Strategic Reallocation of Tax Dollars

If agreed to, the amount necessary to reallocate should be about $3.5 billion per year, representing just 1/10 of 1% of our federal revenue, $3.55 trillion.  If we can fix precisely that which destroys our political system, environment and economy by reallocating just 1/1000th of our revenue - who would say no?

If you faced losing your $100,000 home but could save it for $100, would you make the expenditure?  That's 1/1000th.  Isn't America our home?

If we can save our children's future by reallocating a microscopic 1/1000th of our revenue, shouldn't we?

Further, if we’d go to war to preserve free market capitalism, shouldn't we be prepared to adapt to its unintended and most feared consequences?

 

Complete Loyalty Shift

 

Now with "100% loyalty due to 100% financial dependence" (a free market corporate principle), to further ensure regaining control we can achieve these equally necessary elements to governmental reform: (important links)

#1 Claw-backs (Election, Lobbyist, Corporate, Political Corruption Reforms)

#2 Mislabeled "Citizens" United counteraction strategy (Personhood Conditional)

 

Proposed Constitutional Amendment #28

  "POLITICAL FINANCE REFORM"

 

With the money on the table, perhaps we could eliminate legalized political bribery by reforming the way we finance our politics in a single, resounding, one-time, all encompassing win/win constitutional amendment - keeping SCOTUS out of it.

With this amendment, the middle class would hold near absolute control over our politician's 1) career opportunity  2) job security  3) personal enrichment  4) social status  5) retirement security - not special interest groups which, as it is, appears to defy logic.

 

OR —

We can stand indignantly with our arms folded, refuse to take this action on the grounds of “principle” and continue our freefall into the corporate-slavery abyss and the total annihilation of our planet. 

Do I/we think they deserve millions?  That’s irrelevant. The question is, do they think they’re worth millions.  Apparently so and they're in position to get millions at our expense, which costs thousands of times more!

 

 The question remaining:

 Can we get past our rage towards congress to act logically?

  

Removal does not appear to be the answer.  Replacing politicians - or even changing parties  - is clearly not working and changes nothing -

literally rendering our voting power impotent!

While some might feel that many Congressional members deserve to be imprisoned for larceny, fraud and conducting war under false pretenses, expecting that is impractical.  They could be considered "victims of the system", which they inherited; that in its current form requires their dependence on private financing. 

 

Conclusion:  Fix The System

The Rest Should Take Care of Itself

 

Let's treat the cause - Legalized Political Bribery - rather than applying temporary band-aids to the symptoms with sub-categorical reform attempts.  

Who thought that resolving the issue of our generation would be painless?  Isn't this solution far less painful than the looming alternatives - catastrophic economic failure, environmental decay and middle class collapse?

 

Had we implemented this upgrade to our system a decade ago, would we revile Congress today?  If we don't do this, what will it be like ten years from now?

With our politicians’ complete financial dependence - and therefore possibly their undivided loyalty - what would environmental, bank, energy, tax and healthcare reform look like?