by Dennis K. Fischman in Government Reform, Politics
Posted on November 23, 2008 at 11:51 pm
loading…
How do we in Somerville know that the Obama administration will be under pressure to cave to corporations? I couldn’t say it any better than Derrick Jackson did in the Globe:
For the first time since 1994, the defense and healthcare industries gave a majority of campaign contributions to the Democrats – albeit bare majorities. They will expect to be first in line for loopholes from Obama. Resistance to modernization is likely from energy companies and the transportation industry, which gave about two-thirds of their funds to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
For all the chaos this nation was thrown into by the $700 billion bank bailout, the Washington Post reported this week that $290 billion of it has been committed without anyone yet being hired to oversee it. It also happens that the banking industry was another sector that gave Democrats a bare majority of campaign contributions for the first time since the early 1990s. How much oversight will Obama truly insist upon?
loading…
Obama was never that much of a populist on economic issues. I voted for him, but without any strong illusions that he would confront corporate power head on. As long as we have privately financed elections, I’m not sure we can expect much better. The issue for me is not whether Obama will cave to corporate power, but what we can do to make sure he caves to the public interest.
loading...