I don’t disagree with anything you said. In fact, I thought it was a great post.
There is do gooderism at play for sure, but another factor in DC is the strong tendency to throw money at ‘problems’; some might argue its a gut reaction by congress to every issue. They perceive it as a display of action. But we shouldn’t lose sight of the self-serving nature of this either. The Swamp never saw a program it didn’t like. Expansion of government opens up all kinds of opportunities for office holders to reward their friends and themselves, and of course it opens up a whole new world for the bureaucrats and special interests in DC. Naturally they are constant instigators of expansion.
Spending money is good for business in DC. Look at how rich the politicos get while they’re in office and how comfortable the technocrats are. Life is very good in DC for them.
You mean like Harry Reid, or Biden, or the Clinton’s, or Manchin...
-This one was a classic: https://theintercept.com/2016/08/24/epipen-uproar-highlights-companys-family-ties-to-congress/
-So was this one: https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/politics/hillary-clinton-bill-clinton-paid-speeches/index.html (It was obvious years past that if you wanted personal and prompt attention by the US State Department headed by HRC, you pay her husband or to their foundation.)
Most of Congress, literally MOST, are on the take. I’m not saying it’s illegal, because most of the games they play have been carefully gamed using accountants and lawyers to where they “technically” are breaking no laws.
If you want to drain the swamp you need to start with two things:
-1. Term limits for Congress. The career politician is buyable, essentially for sale to the highest bidder.
If you put in place term limits, the endless pursuit for campaign money ends and it becomes extremely difficult for special interests to continually buy the new guy. The corruption cycle (albeit mostly legal) as we have today would be greatly reduced.
What you really have today are politicians that pander to the public, pop-culture, but are doing the splits and trying to appease their corporate and oligarch financiers who also own the news and social media.
-2. Make it to where the heads of all your departments and administrations are not political appointees. These guys are simply loyal to their political master and use the organizations authority to support the guy whose coat train they are riding on. They are SELDOM apolitical, objective and consistent. Comey, Lynch, Holder are all examples in the past.
These guys are mostly political hacks, some with very little actual experience or education, usually outsiders that know little about the actual organization where they are now the top executive. Examples:
-Pete Buttigieg: In the news now. What were his qualifications?
-Eric Fanning in the past: the poster child, ZERO education and experience in anything defense related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Fanning
In some cases they would never qualify for an entry/low level position because they wouldn’t even make a background check or polygraph, but now are the #1 guy in charge of an organization they never served a day in. Usually these sort of appointees meet the right demographic profile, i.e. woman, black, LGBTQ, and to a lesser degree Latino.