In a decision that could have a profound impact on future elections, the court overturned a 20-year-old ruling that barred businesses from paying for campaign adverts. The decision in what is known as the Citizens United case will allow big businesses - such as those selling arms, drugs or insurance companies - that already wield influence through lobby groups to openly back favored candidates who support their interests.
The court also struck down part of a separate campaign finance bill that barred companies and trade unions from publishing political adverts in the closing days of election campaigns.
The ruling was swiftly condemned by liberal pressure groups such as the People for the American Way, which described it as "putting corporate power above individual rights".
"It is a long established principle that the government can act in the interest of democracy to prevent corporations from pouring in billions of dollars to unduly influence elections," the group said. "Given conservative rhetoric about deference to the democratically elected branches, today's ruling is stunning".
Republicans are expected to be the principal beneficiaries of the ruling, a further blow to some Democratic party candidates in November's midterm elections who are already feeling exposed after the Republican candidate, Scott Brown, won an upset victory in Massachusetts, taking the seat left vacant by the death of Democratic icon Edward (Ted) Kennedy.
Nineteen of the Democrats' remaining 59 seats in the Senate are up for re-election in November. Several incumbents told Politico that all of them are now considered vulnerable.
"Every state is now in play," said Barbara Boxer, who is facing a serious challenge for her California seat from a wealthy Republican, Carly Fiorina.
This will effectively end the voice of the middle class and poor. How can we possibly compete in a world where money contributed determines the outcome of legislation? What politician will have the will power to take the money and vote against the ones who supplied it? I have said for the longest time that who is placed on the Supreme Court is in most ways as important as who wins the Presidency. The Bush years have brought us to the brink of financial collapse and now have almost assuredly ended our democracy as we know it. His reign of terror will be known as the catalyst that destroyed a once great democracy unless we rise up and fight back.
The only way out of this mess is an amendment to the Constitution but who thinks getting that will even be possible with support necessary from Republicans? We all know they are the party of big business and this ruling today has said that the party with the most money has the loudest voice. I am truly sickened by this decision and afraid for what the future holds for this once great land.
For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different.
The past decade has been the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to rethink the underpinnings of the nation's growth.
It has been, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. A decade that began in a moment of triumphalism - there was a current of thought among economists in 1999 that recessions were a thing of the past - has included two of them, bookends for a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable.
There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.
Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 - and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The decade was the first of falling median incomes since figures were first compiled in the 1960s.
And people are seriously considering putting Republicans back in office? What is wrong in America is the corrosive effect of corporate money in the political system. The people have become secondary to the companies that fund the elections. how can they get away with this? The American people are not curious enough to investigate the causes of their decades long slide. Until the average American understands the political system and does even the simplest of research, we will be ruled by the 15 second soundbite and the false news stories of Fox News.
We can not hope for a resurgence of the middle class until we band together and fight for what is right. Unfortunately by the time they wake up it may be too late. We will be nothing more than a former empire drowning in debt and headed for irrelevancy.
This would be funny if it wasn't so frightening. The United States has become the land of uninformed fools. These people are fighting against their own best interests.
I could never explain the crazy profits by Goldman Sachs. You have to ask how, in an environment where the very survival of the firm was in question, could they turn around and have their second most profitable quarter in their history. The answer is simple. It was public funds being used to generate record profits. Does it seem fair that millions are in foreclosure and these crooks are expecting bonuses that will drive that average salary of a Goldman employee to over $500,000.00. It's time to demand our money back. Not only are these people thieves but they are rubbing it in our faces.
Insurance companies aren't playing nice any more. Their dire message that health care legislation will drive up premiums for people who already have coverage comes as a warning shot at a crucial point in the debate and threatens President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
Democrats and their allies scrambled on Monday to knock down a new industry-funded study forecasting that Senate legislation, over time, will add thousands of dollars to the cost of a typical policy. "Distorted and flawed," said White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass. "Fundamentally dishonest," said AARP's senior policy strategist, John Rother. "A hatchet job," said a spokesman for Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.
But the health insurance industry's top lobbyist in Washington stood her ground. In a call with reporters, Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, pointedly refused to rule out attack ads on TV featuring the study, though she said she believed the industry's concerns could be amicably addressed.
At the heart of the industry's complaint is a decision by lawmakers to weaken the requirement that millions more Americans get coverage. Since the legislation would ban insurance companies from denying coverage on account of poor health, many people will wait to sign up until they get sick, the industry says. And that will drive up costs for everybody else.
So lets all be clear about what these thieves are saying. Unless health care reform put millions of new customers into their coffers then they will lie, cheat and scare the hell out of Americans.
It is time to use the existing laws to put these worthless pigs out of business. It is time that we demand a robust public option with the goal of single payer not too far behind. They have shown their hand again and its not pretty. They know a robust public option will diminish their profits and cause them to have to actually pay claims made by their paying customers. It is time to call their bluff and put into the bill a trigger of single payer health care if the premiums rise more than a certain percentage. Two can play at this game.
This was from the Million Moron March in DC this past weekend although with just 60,000 protesters they certainly missed the mark. Its like watching a klan rally without the sheets. When did America become so incredibly stupid and ill informed? I always knew there were a lot of racists but this level of stupidity is scary. Third world status here we come.
