America for Sale

The following is an excerpt from the executive summary from a report entitled "America for Sale: The Cost of Republican Corruption; A Congressional Reprot on How America is Being Sold to the Highest Bidder." It was prepared by the House Rules Committee Democratic Staff, and though it points the finger at Republicans, don't think that the Democrats are free from blame. Lobbyists push everyone in Washington, despite their political affiliation.


The United States Government used to belong to the people. Now it belongs to the highest bidders with the best Republican political connections. Congress is no longer a place where legislators work to make sure the government acts in the people’s interest and uses taxpayers’ dollars wisely. Instead, it has become a place where the Republican representatives who have the power to set Congress’ agenda work to re-distribute as many of those taxpayers’ dollars as possible to their special-interest friends in a massive “pay to play” scheme. It has become a place where the insurance and drug companies write our health care legislation, and the oil and mining industries write our energy policy.

The most important thing to know about Washington these days is the following statistic: Over the past ten years, the number of registered lobbyists in Washington has grown from around 10,000 to more than 34,000, which the fees that lobbyists charge their new clients have increased by as much as 100 percent.

Why do well-connected lobbyists make two, three, or four times the salary of the Members of Congress voters have sent to Washington to represent them?

It’s because America is for sale. The Republican White House and the Congress do not even pretend to be acting in the public interest any more.

The results are bizarre, outrageous stories that seem more at home in the pulp paperback thrillers of John Grisham:
- a corrupt politician who lives on a yacht bought and paid for by a defense lobbyist;
- three mysterious Russian industrialists who launder $1 million into the coffers of a prominent political leader;
- A shady lobbyist and his mob-connected friends who recruit the help of a politician to take over a Florida casino boat business;
- a radical religious anti-gambling activist who is secretly on the take from the gamin industry;
- prominent politicians working with the leaders of an obscure Pacific Island to allow Third World-style sweatshops to operate on American soil.

The culture of corruption has thrived in Republican-controlled Washington because the Republican Congress has intentionally allowed the processes that normally hold our politicians accountable to the American people to completely collapse.

It is more than a few corrupt politicians putting a few dollars in their pockets. It is a national problem, because Americans must live with the bad policies that corrupt Republican legislators have been making for them for the past five years. A Congress that makes its important decisions in back rooms where only lobbyists have access is not promoting the general welfare of the American people. When pieces of their government are sold off to the highest bidder, our children, our families, and our seniors must live with the consequences.

A true culture of corruption has developed under today’s Republican Congress and Republican White House, and the real-life costs it has for everyday Americans are staggering. America—all of America—is literally for sale. Our government is working on behalf of the special interests, not the public interest, and the time for a change is long overdue.