A Holiday Season Full of Corruption
As Americans struggle this holiday to put gifts beneath the tree, the public corruption of our Scrooges and Grinches within the wealthy and powerful class are on full display.
As inflation continues to reduce the purchasing power of working and middle class Americans, the corrupt officials and other grifters that make up our ruling elite are celebrating another banner year. According to a recent survey by Deloitte on Christmas spending, 11.5% of those surveyed do not plan to spend any money on holiday presents. Those with incomes under $50,000 plan to spend 22% less this holiday season, while those with incomes above $100,000 plan to spend 15% more. This is largely the result of gains made by the Professional Management Class due to bonuses, stock buybacks, friendly tax policies and monopoly practices which have benefited from the pandemic. But one area that contributes to inequality but which doesn’t get enough attention is the impact of corruption.
Sarah Chayes and recently published a book titled “On Corruption in America”. Unlike her previous book “Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security” where she outlines how most of the protests against governments globally is really a social reaction against high levels of corruption, the author directs her focus on the high level of corruption in the United States and how it has eroded the foundation and belief in American democracy.
During the holiday season there have been a number of cases where the American public has witnessed a full spectrum of corruption. At the federal level, our leaders no longer do not put up much effort in trying to disguise or hide their corruption. At a recent weekly press conference, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked if members of Congress should be restricted from trading stocks while serving their terms. The question came up because of a recent “Conflicted Congress” investigation by Business Insider which found that dozens of Congressional members and their staff benefited from owning and selling stock in companies that made products related to the pandemic, such as Pfizer. Pelosi exhibited no public shame by stating that there was no conflict of interest because “We are a free market economy and they [members of Congress} should be able to participate in that.” She scoffed at the idea that her venture capitalist trading husband, who is a prolific trader of stocks, would be able to benefit in any way from her position in government. The smirk she flashed before moving on to the next question showed the contempt she has for those who she is supposed to represent.
Pelosi’s Democratic colleague in the Senate, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, was busy showing his corruption bone fides by recently announcing that he is not going to support passage of the Build Back Better legislation until the Child Tax Credit is “zeroed out”. Such a move will push millions of children across the country back into poverty. Some members of the media are now jokingly referring to the Senator from West Virginia as “President Manchin”. The rest of the media seems unwillingly to talk about how Manchin is beholding to the fossil fuel industry and how his family business is so corrupt that it should be referred to as a crime syndicate. The new year should bring more speeches from the back of Senator Manchin’s yacht focusing on additional government programs that benefit American families which need to be eliminated.
Senator Manchin did find time to vote for his 11th consecutive Pentagon budget. The defense budget, which included $25 billion more than what Biden requested, is an annual bipartisan Corruptionfest. The Department of Defense has long been seen as the most corrupt federal agency. The DOD over the years has spent trillions of dollars that are unaccounted for. Yet, Senator Manchin did not say that he thought the defense budget should be cut because of concerns on where to find money to pay for it and how deficit spending is bad for our nation’s accounting ledger. Funding for the Pentagon is not the only area in the military where corruption is rampant. This week the Pentagon investigated itself and found none of the military personnel involved in the August 29th drone strike that killed 10 innocent people in Afghanistan, 7 of which were children, guilty of any offense. Being held unaccountable for civilian atrocities is standard operational procedure for the military. When the “collateral murder” video was released by Wikileaks in 2010 showing innocent people being murdered in Iraq by helicopter gunners, the military investigation also found no one within the military guilty. So far the only people found guilty of that massacre have been Chelsea Bradley and Julian Assange.
Both Houses of Congress also found time to vote on raising the debt ceiling. The vote garnered no Republican votes and passed 50- 49. This was accomplished without eliminating the filibuster. Americans immediately wanted to know why couldn’t the Democrats do something similar for passing other necessary legislation- such as protecting voting rights through the Freedom to Vote Act. President Manchin and Vice President Sinema could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Republicans have been spending their time circling the wagons to protect former President Trump from any connection to the events (riots/coup?) of January 6th. Trump administration officials are either invoking their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination or refusing to comply with committee subpoena requests. All this to protect a president who himself is battling with the courts to prevent his past tax records from being made public.
Corruption exists at the local level as well. In Kansas City, the city council voted to approve a $7.5 million dollar tax subsidy to Fidelity Security Life Insurance, which plans to move from its offices just a few blocks away. In a time of budget cuts, how many public services (education, mental health, roads) could be provided with $7.5 million?
A few states away in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a local mortgage company, CU Mortgage Direct, sponsored a “Dash for Cash” event at a local hockey game where public school teachers competed with each other to get money to purchase school supplies for their students. The competition involved teachers competing for five thousand one dollar bills where they tried to stuff as many dollars in their shirts in five minutes. Yes, Virginia, the Hunger Games have arrived in America.
The corruption reported above for the past week in the United States is unfortunately not unique. Next week will present a new list of corrupt acts that will add pressure to the build up of systemic corruption that threatens the stability and integrity of American democracy. The question is no longer “if” corruption will overburden and destroy our democratic institutions and lead to social upheaval. The only question is “when” that event occurs.
