Dylan Ratigan Rants Against 'Bought Congress', Naked Empire

With a passion that clearly comes from the heart, MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan exploded Tuesday (watch the video here), railing against the system of corruption that extracts the wealth from America into the hands of a small cabal of elites while preventing Democrats and Republicans from implementing any sort of solution that addresses the root problem. "This is a mathematical fact," Ratigan said on his show. "Tens of trillions of dollars are being extracted from the United States of America. Democrats aren't doing it, Republicans aren't doing it. An entire integrated system, banking, trade and taxation, created by both parties over a period of two decades, is at work on our entire country right now.” That's right. The wealth of the United States is being stolen from under our noses, and no one seems to want to do a damn thing to stop it. Yet, we all see it happening, don't we? It's right there in the numbers. We have Depression-era levels of unemployment (true unemployment, not the BS statistics the government likes to toss out there). We have a banking system that outright steals money, manipulates markets to generate paper profits, and destroys the wealth of everyone else. We have a corporate system that encourages short-term profits and discourages building a lasting, well, a lasting ANYTHING. We have a strange dynamic in this country, where Republicans celebrate an economic system that pushes millions into poverty (or below poverty) with minimum-wage, zero-benefit jobs (Looking at you, Walmart) and then denies those same working poor any chance of a decent life. They celebrate it! They actually celebrate a permanent $9 an hour slave class. When Rick Perry announces for President Saturday, he will brag about Texas' economy, which is pretty much everything wrong with America today. Look at our infrastructure. Schools are crumbling. Roads are crumbling. Bridges are falling down. The electrical grid is likely to melt down again and blackout the entire country. The environment is sliding back into pre-EPA levels of pollution. Ferchrissakes, the United States SHUT DOWN ITS SPACE PROGRAM. We put a man on the moon and now we can't afford to explore even half as far into space? It's a disgrace. And why are things such a mess? Because the system is rigged. It's rigged and the people who rigged it are busy setting small fires for Democrats and Republicans to fight over while the riggers set about stealing everything they can. Ratigan encouraged viewers to look at the recent debt ceiling "debate" that took place. First, Ratigan mentions that America is $70 trillion in debt — a debt that must be accounted for in some way, at some point. Then, Ratigan gets to the scary part, which is that neither Republicans nor Democrats presented a serious plan to tackle that. Instead, they played some political theater game at the margins. "I'm saying we've got a real problem...Republicans want to burn the place to the ground and Democrats who want to offer a plan that gets it through the next election, the end of the second term of their presidency and then screws me and my kids when it's over," he said. “We're sitting here arguing about whether we should do the $4 trillion plan that kicks the can down the road for the president for 2017, or burn the place to the ground, both of which are reckless, irresponsible and stupid.” Ratigan continued with the solution: cut out Congress from the conversation, and in doing so, cut out the wealthy elite that funds all elections and determines winners and losers on election day. "I would like him (Obama) to go to the people of the USA and say, People of the USA, your Congress is bought. Your Congress is incapable of making legislation on health care, banking, trade or taxes. Because if they do it they will lose their political funding and they won't do it. But I am the president of the USA and I won't have a country that is run by a bought Congress. So, I am not going to work with a bought Congress...I am going to abandon the bought Congress like Teddy Roosevelt did and I am gonna to go to the people of the United States and say 'you've got a bought Congress'." "Until we get rid of the bought Congress, which is Jimmy Williams' constant point: get the money out of politics. And until the president says that's the problem and says he is going to fix it, there is no policy that I can possibly see no matter how brilliant your idea might be or your idea or my idea or her idea or your idea at home . . . that idea will not happen as long as there is the capacity to basically fire a politician who disagrees with me by taking funding away from him." And that is how Ratigan turned from Dylan Ratigan, MSNBC host, into Dylan Ratigan, my-favorite-man-alive (my apologies to the previous number one, former Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg). Ratigan continued with how Obama could start this process today. Not after the election in 2012. Today. Right now. "You go and give a speech, right now. Tomorrow you begin the process of actually investing and solving the problem. . . . I would create an infrastructure bank with 2 percent lending, immediately. Once I explain to people the problem – Once I explain to you that you have cancer – Once you understand how screwed up your trade, tax and banking policies are, believe me, you will have no issue when I incorporate an infrastructure bank that I fund with repatriated offshore money that I bring in, and then use to create 2 percent direct lending to every business in America." "Because when you realize that the banking system is fully corrupt and defrauding us and I come out and say that, which is what I want my president to do, at that exact moment, I say “you know what, we got a screwed up situation here people, you all know it and now I am going to admit it." "As a result not only have I admitted it but we're going to begin the process of solving it like grown-ups. They did it after World War Two, they did it after the Civil War, they did in Latin America with the Brady Bonds, we are not seeing it happen now." You can reach the author by email john@benzinga.com or on twitter @johndthorpe.