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Romney ($70,000 per) , Gingrich ($60,000 per), Trump ($1.5 million per) , Jeb Bush ($50,000 per), and Carson ($30,000 per) all earned income from speaking fees before their runs.
But! But! But! They're not the Clintons! Anything the Clintons do is wrong, because they're... the Clintons!
Also, I heard that during the time period when he had started campaigning, trump was scheduling campaign events near where his speaking engagements were, and then billing the whole trip to his campaign. That would like... a conflict of interest versus smart scheduling? Or more like... misuse of campaign funds, since he has indeed been accepting campaign donations, right?
It takes a lot of money to make a successful run for federal office. While I am interested in campaign finance reform that will pass constitutional muster, I don't see that speechmaking for money is inherently more questionable than, say, sitting on corporate boards for money. Or writing books for money. Or building casinos for money. Or leveraging your financial contacts from one elective office to run for a more powerful elective office.
Frankly, the Supreme Court justices, who are not elected and sit on the bench for life, being paid more than expenses for speaking is just spine chilling. Regular politicians have to at least worry about how it looks to those who may or may not vote for them.
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Frankly, the Supreme Court justices, who are not elected and sit on the bench for life, being paid more than expenses for speaking is just spine chilling. Regular politicians have to at least worry about how it looks to those who may or may not vote for them.
Let's say me and ten others want to get something done in a town in Idaho. We each give you a couple of million for a speech for us. You launch your campaign for mayor of that town a few months later. In office, you pay us back by giving us what we want and we assure you that you will get a great new job working for us once you leave office. Do you not see any problems with this? How can we say that ordinary Americans are not shut out of the political system in this environment? To me, it is plutocracy and this is not what so many men and women have fought to defend. We need to restore democracy by reigning in big money in politics.
That's why there are so many restrictive laws that lessen the level of payback.
Payback has always been part and parcel of our political system from the very first. Of course it's a problem. It always has been and always will be.
In our earlier days, a new President was supposed to throw a big party in the White House, open the doors wide, and let anyone who voted for him come in to join the feast. When Jackson was elected, his voters went through a 400 pound cheese wheel in one night and broke up the furniture in a massive drunken party, but that was when our nation was smaller in size and population.
However, the needs of a city or a nation outweigh the needs of individual contributors. Any contributor would like a guarantee of payback, but once in office, their guy can do it or not as he chooses. As many presidents have angered their contributors as have made them happy.
Big money has been a big problem ever since the late 1800s and the rise of American industry. One President is elected and rewards them, and another is elected and spanks them. It has been a cycle that is repeated over and over.
Big Money doesn't target Presidents only; it spends much more on Congress, especially in the House, where a 2-year election is just enough time for a lot of favorable laws can get written before a rascal loses the next election. Sometimes, when all their cards are lined up well, the plutocracy does win what the want as payback. Dump enough money on the House, the Senate, and the White House, and things can go their way.
That's why, every few elections, we elect a populist who doesn't care about lining his pockets. The jobs themselves are so filled with good benefits that some politicians don't need to be greedy to do all right after they leave office. That lack of greed allows them to go after Big Money and limit the corruption once again.
But a Congressional career is a pretty easy job. It pays well and doesn't have many physical demands or mental demands placed on most of the politicians; really, if they just show up and vote when they need to, all the rest is up to them as to how much they want to actually govern or not. There are always a few who want to be leaders and there are always many more who just want to follow along and not have to do very much.
The only hard part in the job is getting elected. The first time is always the hardest. Incumbency is mostly name recognition, and the longer a politician stays in office, the better his name is recognized. As long as he keeps his nose clean and his voters happy, he keeps the job.
Who among us is willing to vote for someone they don't approve of? That's the tap root of corruption right there.
When the tap root begins to rot from corruption, so goes the tree. When a forest is all only one kind of tree, all the tap roots become more vulnerable to corruption. Other trees may be less prone to the particular disease.
Who among us is willing to vote for someone they don't approve of? That's the tap root of corruption right there.
Plenty it seems. The President along with a good bit of congress is made up of these types.
This is why I refuse to vote the party anymore. I'll go with the candidate that I feel the best about and this does not include anymore bought and paid for politicians. This is especially so with politicians that are as bought & paid for as the Clintons.
I mean, I don't think so. I certainly don't think they should get speaking fees WHILE in office but ex-Presidents, etc get TONS of speaking invitations and they don't do them for free.
I'm all for overturning Citizens United. Let's start there.
The Clintons aren't just beholden to Wall Street, they are part of the Wall Street Cabal. It was Clinton that had Glass-Steagall repealed. Worth $trillions to the Billionaire Class. The Clintons did fine for themselves and their buddies.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by katzpaw
Romney ($70,000 per) , Gingrich ($60,000 per), Trump ($1.5 million per) , Jeb Bush ($50,000 per), and Carson ($30,000 per) all earned income from speaking fees before their runs.
But they're not Clintons so the right is fine with that.
I mean, I don't think so. I certainly don't think they should get speaking fees WHILE in office but ex-Presidents, etc get TONS of speaking invitations and they don't do them for free.
I'm all for overturning Citizens United. Let's start there.
Doesnt systemic corruption require systemic reform? What if I give you tens of millions of dollars for a speech you give to me and you announce you will run for office a month later. I'll get my return on investment once you're in office? Are you for that too?
Hillary and Bill received over $150 million in speaking fees in the years before she launched her presidential campaign. She has said she will look into releasing the transcripts from some of those Wall Street speeches in the months before she officially said she was running. So far she hasnt released any. Here is a clock: Official Transcript Clock
How can we have trust politicians to serve the public faithfully when this is acceptable?
Funny how she kept telling everyone how broke her & Bill were.........Obviously Hillary cannot be trusted, just another lie to add to the mountain.
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