In Focus: Bring Back Honesty and Integrity
For too long, the Administration and their backers in Congress have promoted policies that put special interests ahead of the public interest and appeal to the most extreme elements.
A culture of corruption has enveloped our nation's capital, with special interests buying influence and many White House and Congressional leaders under investigation, indictment or arrest:
- House Majority Leader: indicted for money laundering
- Senate Majority Leader: under SEC investigation for insider trading
- Vice President's Chief of Staff: indicted for obstruction of justice
- White House's top procurement official: arrested for trading trips for lobbyist favors
- A veteran Member of Congress: guilty of taking $2.4 million in bribes from government contractors
- House Administration Committee chair: under investigation for exchanging legislative acts for golfing trips and campaign money
- House Speaker: silenced the Ethics Committee. by replacing its chairman with a crony
While Washington is mired in corruption, everyday Americans have been hard hit by ill economic winds, skyrocketing health care and energy costs, an environment that grows more poisoned every day and a weakening of the values that underpin our country.
But the Administration and the Congress have largely ignored the real problems of real people as they have catered to the special interests.
Real Problems
- Letting health care costs skyrocket and 46 million Americans go without coverage at all - while giving away billions of taxpayer dollars to drug and insurance companies
- Standing by while oil companies spike fuel and home heating prices and take record profits - while letting them write their own tax breaks in secret White House meetings
- Ignoring the effects of global warming on our environment and our lives - while letting companies that pollute our water, air and land off the hook
- Spying on Americans without warrants - while interfering in the personal, private decisions of Terri and Michael Schiavo. Letting huge corporations walk away from their pension obligations to U.S. employees - while giving them tax breaks when they take their jobs overseas
- Requiring more one-size-fits-all tests for public school children - while diverting scarce public school resources into private education
- Preventing minimum wage increases for workers on the first rung of the economic ladder - while giving exorbitant tax breaks to the wealthiest few at the top
- Cutting student loans, veterans health care and Social Security benefits for seniors - while piling up trillions in deficits and debt
- Giving no-bid contracts to political supporters like Halliburton - while our soldiers go without the equipment and protective gear they need
It's time to start the clean-up of Washington
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to break the hold that special interests have over too many elected officials
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to bring back honesty and integrity, and
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to restore faith in our government