CONGRESS; THE HOUSE OF (POLITICAL) WHORES

Congress Job Approval Starts 2014 at 13%

Job approval of Congress remains well below the historical average of 33%. Gallup has not measured a job approval rating above that mark since early in Barack Obama's presidency. Gallup first measured congressional job approval in 1974.

The reason(s) are based on a myriad of factors but underlying it all is that the Congress of the Unitied States for all practical purposes is run like a brothel.

“Instead of electing the best leaders, we elect the best fund raisers.”

Defining a political whore is to simply look where the money is coming from.

·       SMALL Individual contributions from constituents; you – the voter.

·       LARGE; usually difficult to trace, amounts of money coming from wealthy individuals or 

organizations that buy, package, and own the candidate.

The way our broken political system works is that the chief place to raise money for campaigns is from industries and interest groups that want something from government. Influence is purchased all the time, whether in explicit quid pro quo trades or not, and such influence peddling just as bad for democracy as bribery.

Politicians, for the most part, behave like prostitute, drafting or blocking legislation that favor those who pay them; be it wealthy individuals, lobbyists, PACS, or any special interest groups or organizations willing to help finance their campaigns. 

Since these political whores still need to be voted into office they and their backers will say and do anything to sway voters to them and then, once elected, abandon these voters to pander to their benefactors. 

In this information age it isn't difficult to find out who these political whores are. One source; The Center for Responsive Politics  is a one-stop web site to find almost anything there is to know about politics, the politicians and the players. 

Here's an example of how quickly you can get a snapshot view of who is financially backing a politician; or in this example a "political whore".

Cycle Source of Funds, 2009-2014, Campaign Cmte only

	Individual Contributions   - Small Individual Contributions  - Large Individual Contributions	$8,965,456 $706,910 (5%) $8,258,546 (59%)	(64%)
	PAC Contributions	$3,120,138	(22%)
	Candidate self-financing	$0	(0%)
	Other	$2,028,198	(14%)

Note that only 5% of this politicians money comes from "small individual contributions" though he  has millions in his campaign coffer. 

Another example; one of a "politician" the numbers will reflect this:

Cycle Source of Funds, 2011-2014, Campaign Cmte only

	Individual Contributions   - Small Individual Contributions  - Large Individual Contributions	$43,074,307 $20,397,757 (46%) $22,676,543 (51%)	(97%)
	PAC Contributions	$712,408	(2%)
	Candidate self-financing	$0	(0%)
	Other	$437,871	(1%)

The coffer is filled with millions from "individual" donors; almost equally between both large and small contributions.

The best way to clean up the institution so that it is once again acting as the voice of the American people rather than a 2-bit brothel is to cut off the money so that a vote actually counts for something.