The State of the Union Poster is a giant poster covered in dirty stats about influence-peddling in US government. The activists who put it together have licensed it under the Creative Commons, too.
Thanks to our current system of privately-financed elections, Congress has become a huge bazaar, where everyone knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Big corporations and the super-wealthy invest millions in political contributions and get all kinds of special deals in return. For a few millions in donations, they get a $20 billion tax break here, a $10 billion subsidy there-returns on investment that would make honest entrepreneurs blush, but makes Wall Street salivate.
All this adds up to real money, and ordinary Americans like you and me pay the price. With higher deficits, cuts in vital programs, a dirtier environment, more dangerous working conditions, lower wages, greater health insecurity, a diminished future for our children.
It's time for us to decide: Should public policy be bought and sold like commodities in the stock market? Should a tiny elite, insulated from the everyday needs of average Americans, be able to buy politicians and obtain special treatment? Or should we offer candidates who refuse special-interest donations a source of "clean" public money?
(Thanks, Dave!)
