Reading Hostile Takeover by David Sirota

I have been reading the book by David Sirota called Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government - and How We Take It Back. Each chapter is about a different industry or issue and is full of statistics that shows how Big Money has expanded their influence in the Government.

Like many Americans, I had felt that corporations and big money somehow kept coming out on top on many political issues. However, it wasn't until I heard Ed Fallon talking about Big Money that I learned how much influence Big Money actually has.

For the next two weeks, I will be posting some quotes from each chapter of Hostile Takeover to highlight how our Government has been sold off to Big Money and we, the Common Iowans, are being left out.

I will leave you with this quote from the Introduction of Hostile Takeover...

On almost every major issue affecting your wallet, you are told a different version of the same basic story. There is deified "free market" that we all must bow down to and never question, under punishment of getting tarred and feathered as a pink commie bastard by whatever Attila the Hun radio host happens to be on the air. This free market, we are told, means we must have fewer regulations that protect citizens' rights, less taxation of the rich, and no mandates on business to fulfill any social responsibilities other than increasing corporations' bottom line. At the same time, this "free market" is to be ignored when it might actually benefit ordinary citizens.

Thus, in one breath, politicians tell us price controls for medicine are bad, but restrictive patent laws that keep drug prices high are good; regulations against energy price gouging are bad, but government handouts to energy companies are good; protecting American jobs is bad, but government help in outsourcing our jobs is good. In short, they tell us government is Big Business's personal sidearm, instead of the middle-class's flak jacket against corporate abuse.