Thom Hartmann for BuzzFlash: How Badly Has Citizens United Screwed America and How Many Americans Will Die Because of It?

April 27th 2020

By Thom Hartmann

Virtually every developed country in the world is running an economic stimulus program right now for small businesses. In almost every one of them, 100% or close to all of the money the government gives the companies must be given directly to employees.

The giant exception? The United States. Here, some of the largest recipients of government aid are politically connected to either the Trump family or the GOP, or have massive lobbying operations, and most of the money is administered by banks who are giving it to their best customers.

No other developed country in the world has the equivalent of the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that makes corporations into people and lets corporations and rich people buy politicians. Thus, we get headlines like in today’s edition of Judd Legum’s popular.info newsletter: “Multi-millionaire Trump donor is top recipient of funds intended for struggling small businesses.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand announced today that they have “eliminated“ the virus in their country through rapid and aggressive testing and contact tracing. Here in the United States, of course, we have the highest rate of infections and deaths in the world; we have 4.5% of the worlds population and about a quarter of the world’s infections and deaths. Our Republican controlled Supreme Court has succeeded in turning America into the most corrupt major western country in the world, and every time our Republican-controlled Senate meets, they throw another few hundred billion dollars to their rich buddies. It’s time for a political revolution.

Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of the War on Voting and more than 30 other books in print. His most recent project is a science podcast called The Science Revolution. He is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute.