{"id":34270,"date":"2018-05-15T06:40:37","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T11:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34270"},"modified":"2018-05-15T06:40:37","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T11:40:37","slug":"michael-cohen-tony-podesta-and-the-nauseating-corruption-enabled-by-big-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34270","title":{"rendered":"Michael Cohen, Tony Podesta, and the Nauseating Corruption Enabled by Big Government"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michael Cohen, Tony Podesta, and the Nauseating Corruption Enabled by Big Government<\/a><\/h3>\n
Corruption and big government have always gone hand-in-hand.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Ordinary Americans\u00a0have a low opinion<\/a> of Washington, but they\u2019re underestimating the extent of the problem.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s capital is basically a playpen for special interests.\u00a0It\u2019s now the\u00a0richest region of the country<\/a>, with lobbyists, bureaucrats, contractors, politicians, and other insiders and cronies\u00a0getting fat and happy<\/a>\u00a0thanks to money that is taken from people in the productive sector of the economy.<\/p>\n

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Republicans<\/a>\u00a0play the game and\u00a0Democrats<\/a>\u00a0play the game, with both sides\u00a0getting undeserved wealth<\/a>\u00a0at our expense.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take an up-close look at how this sordid game is played.<\/p>\n

Here are some excerpts from\u00a0a column<\/a>\u00a0by Catherine Rampell in today\u2019s\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The GOP is no longer the Party of Reagan. It\u2019s the Party of Michael Cohen. \u2026the Cohen blueprint for achieving the American Dream: Work minimally, if you can, and leverage government connections whenever possible. \u2026following Donald Trump\u2019s unexpected presidential victory,\u00a0Cohen\u00a0cashed\u00a0in. \u2026Cohen told companies that he could provide valuable \u201cinsights\u201d into the new administration. Huge multinational corporations lined up to purchase these \u201cinsights,\u201d dumping millions into Essential Consultants LLC\u2026 Cohen is hardly the only prominent Trumpster invoking White House connections\u2026 Cabinet members and other senior government officials, too, have enjoyed a\u00a0sweetheart apartment deal,\u00a0lobbyist-arranged\u00a0vacations\u00a0and\u00a0private jet rides. These are not amenities secured through brains, honesty and hard work, the virtues that Republicans traditionally say\u00a0are required for upward mobility and financial comfort. They are the fruits of luck, cronyism and a loose approach to ethical lines.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is disgusting. Republicans often come to Washington claiming they\u2019re going to \u201cdrain the swamp.\u201d Many of them, however,\u00a0quickly decide<\/a>\u00a0it\u2019s a hot tub.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t forget that sleaze is a bipartisan activity in Washington.<\/p>\n

Here are excerpts from a\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0about influence-peddling on the other side of the aisle.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Cohen, Tony Podesta, and the Nauseating Corruption Enabled by Big Government Corruption and big government have always gone hand-in-hand. Ordinary Americans\u00a0have a low opinion of Washington, but they\u2019re underestimating the extent of the problem. The nation\u2019s capital is basically a playpen for special interests.\u00a0It\u2019s now the\u00a0richest region of the country, with lobbyists, bureaucrats, contractors, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10189,1769,14989,205,19708,14991,5164,637,678],"class_list":["post-34270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-big-government","tag-corruption","tag-daniel-j-mitchell","tag-democrats","tag-fee","tag-foundation-for-economic-education","tag-lobbying","tag-politics","tag-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34271,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34270\/revisions\/34271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}