We are led by a Congress of telemarketers
We’ve all heard the stories about how much time and effort members of Congress devote to raising money for re-election, so that next year they can return to Washington to once again start spending a lot of time raising money for re-election.
As an NPR story puts it, our senators and representatives have two jobs — they serve in Congress, and they work as a telemarketer, manning the phones two to four hours a day on average to raise money. The two parties have even established call centers near Capitol Hill so their members can dial for dollars.
“I think most Americans would be shocked — not surprised, but shocked — if they knew how much time a United States senator spends raising money,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin told NPR. “And how much time we spend talking about raising money, and thinking about raising money, and planning to raise money, and going off on little retreats and conjuring up new ideas about raising money.”
Take a minute to listen to the story. If you want to know why our elected officials seem so beholden to special interests, and why independence has become such a rare commodity in Washington, here’s a big part of the answer. Spending hour after hour, day after day begging other people for money would sap the soul out of anyone.
– Jay Bookman
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106 comments Add your comment
Defense
March 31st, 2012
12:01 am
“Wouldn’t help. Whoever was in, or wanted to be in, would still have to raise the money”
Spoken like a true politician
Retired Vet
March 31st, 2012
11:53 am
TBone
March 30th, 2012
2:29 pm
“As a country we have allowed ourselves to be duped by a privilidged elite ruling class that was not the intention of our founding fathers”
Sorry TBone, but our founding fathers were the elite ruling class in their day. The elite ruling calss they railed against were the Brits whom they wanted to rid themselves of. The founding fathers were men of means mostly. Do you think Jefferson, Madison et. al. could find the time forge a new nation if they had to labor in their own fields?
Retired Vet
March 31st, 2012
12:08 pm
It costs an awful lot of money for politicians to get their messages out. Buying airtime, paying for print, traveling, paying staff, renting space and on and on means rasing dollars. As the cost of everything on the planet from bread to pink slime based burgers continues to rise so will the cost of messaging for politicians. Our complaining will not change a thing.
Retired Vet
March 31st, 2012
12:16 pm
Speaking of dollars, I opened my ad valorem tax bill and fainted. Why oh why did I buy that damn new car last year? Thanks to a slight of hand by the boys and girls under the gold dome I could trade it on a new one in 2013 and never have to pay that tax again. That bill is a stimuls for auto dealers. Who wants to wager that new car sales will not skyrocket in Georgia after the bill takes affect?
Retired Vet
March 31st, 2012
5:03 pm
Joseph
March 30th, 2012
3:45 pm
Joseph, you do know being POTUS is 24/7 job x 365 don’t you? The office of the presidency is not stuck at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Everywhere he goes so goes the office and job. Every POTUS in recent times followed the script. Why should this POTUS be any different? Whether campaigning or swimming or playing golf he cannot escape the demands of his job. Try it. You would probably last 2hrs. max before your head explodes.
independent thinker
April 2nd, 2012
3:47 pm
This is the image we want the rest of the world to emulate?????
Abolish the amendment that allowed Senators to be directly elected by each state’s voters. Direct election every six years by both houses of thher state’s legislature . Senators were supposed to represent the interest solely of the state’s governments. No fund raising would be allowed- just a straight vote of each state legislature. Only persons qualified had to be a state senator or hold high state office. Teerm limits for representatives of no more than four terms or eight years- same as the president.