P.D. Reader,

I can’t argue with the union-busting or zillions in tax breaks to the rich but blaming it on the voters leaves out one major factor — THE INFLUENCE OF OUTSIDE MONEY ON U.S. POLITICS.

Thanks to the Supreme Court we have Citizens United where Justice Scalia “brilliantly” decided that $billions in corporate donations is a form of Free Speech.

Thanks to Ronald Reagan (who started this phase) we’ve had a concerted effort to remove unions from the business landscape. Who makes money when the balance of power shifts? Think, New York Yankees playing Single-A Wichita — who wins?

We hire politicians to back the citizens but they are wooed by lobbyists and moneymen so they can spend $ 10 million to get re-elected as mayor. The cost of elections has zoomed into the stratosphere where only billionaires and corporations can provide the cash — with strings attached. A planned outcome? Of course, it was!

The GOP pushed through the $trillion tax break that would “trickle down” to all Americans. There is no such thing as trickle-down economics. When’s the last time income for Bezos, Gates, Musk, or any of the others trickled down to you? Most of the “profit” went to buying back stock which boosted price and dividends which boosted CEO pay, which made all the elite very happy.

When we hire a mechanic to fix our transmission and he breaks it and then charges us $3500 to replace it — are we really to blame for hiring him? The same applied to elected officials with some exceptions. Whoever votes for Greene, Boebert, Trump, and others, is voting with their anger — which has already warped their perspective.

Sure, the government is too big, but what should we jettison? Social Security, Medicare, Military Spending, Infrastsructure? GOP constantly screams the same thing, Big Gov’t, and then bloats it whenever they’re in power. We need to agree on what to change.

Politics has become a monumental game of Three Card Monte — distractions all around to keep the citizens from seeing the underlying game. Imagine if the US budget was $ 1 billion. 99% of all the BS would be gone in one day because there would be nothing to grab. We are a Nation of Money. More now, More later, More forever, and all of what ails us has to do with money and people trying to get some of it.

Greed is killing America, while we continue to praise it and reward it and pay out more of our hard-earned bits of it to pay for theirs. The next time we go to a Dodgers game think about this — there are 26 men on that team with a payroll of $310 million! That’s an average of $12,000,000 per person per year to play baseball. A good tenured teacher makes about $48,000 per year. A good caring policeman about $55,000.

We’ve been locked in Fear for over 24 months with the Pandemic. Our real fear should be Greed — that’s the true virus killing us slowly.