Earlier this week in a Financial Times article and email to his employees and fellow CEOs, Starbucks head Howard Schultz asked “that all of us forgo political contributions until the Congress and the President return to Washington and deliver a fiscally disciplined long-term debt and deficit plan to the American people.” Today on CNBC, he said that our “leaders” in Washington have put political ideology & self-interest ahead of citizenship & leadership. Leave a comment below or go to CNBC to participate in their poll.
Recently I wrote that I agreed with Charlie Reese’s opinion that it is the voting public that hires politicians. According to Open Secrets we hired a guy who spent $730 million (on the general election) for a 4 year contract that pays him $400,000 annually. Is it any wonder that we can’t economically create jobs and balance the budget?
It is being speculated that Barrack Obama will spend a billion dollars in the next election to keep his job, yet a majority of the other people we have hired think that campaign finance reform is a bad idea.
Is it possible that we would get better results out of Washington if we didn’t make one of the requirements of getting elected spending far more $ than the job pays? I say this with an eye to what I think the largest part of political spending goes towards- TV ads. Who do you think hires the best employees- someone who does it based on a 30 second TV spot, or someone who does it by looking at the guys resume including experience and voting record, seeing how the guy does in interviews followed by talking to people who know the guy personally?
Maybe we should also insist that our congress pass campaign finance reform right after they tackle the budget.
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