Special interests win in $1 trillion budget

This month the Republican-controlled House, with Democratic support, passed a $1 trillion budget. Lawmakers had less than 24 hours to read the bill.

According to Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican, "They don't want you to read it. You think they want you to analyze all the mischievous items in there?"

A look inside the 1,603-page bill shows why the left and right unsuccessfully joined forces to try to prevent it from passing.

Citibank wrote the provision repealing part of Dodd-Frank allowing high-risk financial instruments called "swaps" that partially caused the financial collapse of 2008, to again be bailed out by taxpayers to $1 trillion dollars. In other words, give us your retirement savings, stop asking questions and allow big banks to engage in risky behavior at your expense.

While most people believe that political favors are being bought by the wealthy, the individual limit for campaign contributions went from $32,400 to $324,000. They cut the pensions of already retired workers, opening the door to slashing pensions for other retirees.

They cut $300 million from Pell Grants for low-income college students and gave it to student loan debt collectors. They've cut the EPA by 21 percent since 2010, a gift to polluters. The IRS gets over $300 million in cuts, so no one can audit cheaters.

And it provides $4 billion in funding that the Pentagon never requested.

Why all these giveaways? Because politicians need money and the campaign contributions they get in exchange for legislative "favors" are far more important than the middle-class voter. As long as they can keep people of both parties fighting each other over social issues, they can keep lining their own pockets at our expense.

Marti Gorun

Libertyville