A Government Of, By, and For Billionaires?

Congress keeps churning out laws that the great majority of us have explicitly, consistently, and loudly said we do not want ! Are those lawmakers deaf? No, their ears are stuffed with ever-increasing wads of political cash from corporations and the superrich, so our words can’t reach their eardrums. Take Tim Sheehy , a Montana Republican elected two years ago to the US Senate. He quickly proved to be a tail-wagging fetcher of more plutocratic tax-giveaways and most anything else the billionaire class desires. Why? Money. His campaign was launched and supercharged by such barons of Wall Street and Silicon Valley as Steve Schwarzman . Honcho of a private equity powerhouse, Schwarzman greased Sheehy’s political skids with an $8 million check. A New York Times analysis later found that at least 63 other billionaire families bought a piece of the fledgling Montana senator that year. He’s not their only purchase, of course. The Times ’ tally found 300 billionaire families invested more than $3 billion in federal candidates in 2024. Meanwhile, not only does Congress do what We the People don’t want, they also refuse to do what we do want . Most emphatically, that includes a huge, bipartisan majority who want all corporate money out of political races and solid limits on donations by the rich. Big Money is a stark threat to America, says Marc Raciot, Montana’s former Republican governor. It’s turning our democratic republic into a place where a few wealthy people can legally spend millions to direct how the government runs . “Does any reasonable person on the planet think that’s appropriate,” he asks? To help assert a people’s democracy over corporate plutocracy, go to EndCitizensUnited.org . Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/

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A Government Of, By, and For Billionaires? is an episode from Jim Hightower's Radio Lowdown by Jim Hightower.

This episode is 2:10 long.

This episode was published on Apr 23, 2026.

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