After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town just south of Austin), is African-American, and what gives her vote some historic punch is that she's 109 years old. Her father was a slave. Her mother was born right after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She's been through it all--Jim Crow segregation, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the poll tax, FDR, the civil-rights movement, desegregation, 13 years of George W (five as guv, eight as prez), and now: Barack Obama. This last change fills her with joy, she says.
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Money in, legislation out
It's a simple process, really—put in your money, the machine whirrs, and out comes your product. The machine is the Washington political system, and the product is legislation bought by corporate interests.
The latest beneficiaries of this process are MBNA and other purveyors of credit cards. These hustlers recently bought a new bankruptcy law that slams the door on working-class folks who lose a job, have a health problem, or otherwise get hit by something unforeseen, leaving them unable to pay their debts.
The bill, written by credit-card lobbyists, allows the industry to ruin these folks, denying them the chance for a fresh financial start.
On the other hand, Wall Street analysts calculate that it will deliver 5% more profits to the credit-card giants next year alone.
The industry poured more than $35 million into last year's presidential and congressional races. MBNA, the world's largest peddler of credit, also was the largest contributor to George W. Its executives donated $240,000, its CEO was a top Bush fundraiser, and it chipped in $100,000 for his inaugural festivities.
Bush didn't have to do much legislative arm-twisting. The industry showered money on both parties last year, and the legislation passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate.