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So we are now finding out the answers to some of our questions about which members of Congress actually represent We, the People...and which ones represent, Them, the Corporate Masters.
We have seen a Democratic Senator propose a policy that would put people in jail for not buying health insurance and a Democratic President who has taken numerous public beatings from those on the left side of the fence for his inability to ram something through a group of people...and yes, folks, the entendre was intentional.
But most of all, we've been asking ourselves: "why would Democratic Members of Congress who will eventually want us to vote for them vote against something that nearly all voting Democrats are inclined to vote for?"
Today's conversation attempts to answer that question by looking at exactly how money and influence flow through a key politician, Montana's Senator Max Baucus-and in doing so, we examine some ugly political realities that have to be resolved before we can hope to convince certain Members of Congress to vote for what their constituents actually want when it really counts.
When the Senate Finance Committee reorganized its five subcommittees recently, one reason was so that its newest member, John E. Sununu , could get his assignments. But the New Hampshire Republican shouldn't start clearing his campaign-season calendar just yet. The Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight and Long-Term Growth, to which he was posted, hasn't held a single hearing or legislative markup in the past 15 months.
On the other hand, maybe having John E. AWOL from his senate duties is not such a bad thing in respect to an IRS oversight subcommittee, since the Sprinter's stated preference is "tearing up the tax code or replacing it with a flat tax."