Purchasing Policies

An alarming change is gradually taking place that is increasing the influence of a minority of special interests in the shaping of policy and the relationship between business and politicians. As the Washington Post reports, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (U.S. CoC), a large business lobby in Washington has been consolidating its power and has increased its financial might significantly over the past ten years. The result of this is that there is more and more cooperation between business and politicians in the drafting of legislation and less and less of a chance for the people who bear the brunt of these policies to get a word in edgewise, that is to say, the majority of Americans. Furthermore, rather than engaging in limited lobbying to benefit the narrow interests of its members, the U.S. CoC has been supporting a broad array of Republican policies. This has lead to a situation in which the CoC is afraid to break with the Republican agenda in the fear that in the future, their narrow interests to help their industries will be de-funded as retaliation. This has lead to a partisan business lobby that has tremendous sway in terms of funding and leads to questionable policies being enacted simply because of the financial backing behind them. It gives businessmen disproportionate influence and voice in the political process which endangers the basic philosophy of democracy: one person, one vote. Yikes!