I came to this country from England about 16 years ago and the very first thing that struck me was how openly corrupt the government was. I mean, they didn’t even try to hide the fact that big business runs things over here. If you want to dump nuclear waste in the ocean, no problem. Just give a little “donation” to your local senator’s re-election campaign and – BOOM – in no time, they’ll pass a new law that says it’s OK to dump whatever the heck you like in the Pacific.

How about stealing another country’s oil supplies? That’s worth a few bucks in both parties campaign coffers, isn’t it? And before you know it – the Iraq War.

“Hmm,” says the esteemed Senator from Mississippi, who just happens to Chair the Defense Spending committee, “I could use a boost in my upcoming election campaign. I know, I’ll order a new aircraft carrier to be built in my constituency – even though the Navy says they don’t want or need another one – that should get me a few votes back home.”

And NOBODY SEEMS TO MIND! You all seem to think it’s OK, because that’s the way it’s always been over here. Well, it isn’t OK, and it doesn’t have to be this way.

I mean, this is not rocket science, people. The US government collects over 4 trillion dollars every year in tax revenue. That’s more than enough to pay every teacher a decent salary so that our kids can get a decent education, give firefighters and police all the equipment they could possibly need, provide health insurance to every one in the country, heck, we could even deliver pizzas to every house every Friday night and still have money to spare – IF the money wasn’t being siphoned off by a handful of wealthy special interests.

Want a real democracy? It’s EASY. Take the money out of the equation. Stop allowing rich people to buy our legislators with their “campaign contributions.” We could provide a reasonable amount of federal funding for all valid Congressional election campaigns from the tax coffers and we’d still be a LOT better of than we are now.