Republican fat cats exposed

A pile of documents were inadvertently released that detailed donations to the Republican Governors Public Policy Committee, a 501(c)(4) organization, which under present Supreme Court policy, does not have to publicize its donors.

According to the New York Times, last year the Committee “allowed corporate donors to make their cases on how to carry out the Affordable Care Act; discuss hydraulic fracturing, an oil-and gas-exploration method regulated at the state level, and hash over state budgets just as coffers began to loosen.”  (For the full article, go to <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/us/republicans-corporate-donors-governors.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article>).

A group of corporations known as the “Statesmen,” whose members donated at least $250,000, included Aetna, Coca-Cola, Exxon Mobil, Koch Companies, Microsoft, Pfizer, UnitedHealth Group, and Walmart.

In 1969, the first year I taught college classes at the Penn State Behrend Campus, one of my more radical students kept complaining that the U.S. was a “plutocracy,” rule by the rich.  I argued with him and explained why he was wrong.  Now I’d have to agree.