In a study of Senate voting patterns, Michael Jay Barber found that "senators' preferences reflect the preferences of the average donor better than any other group." In a similar study of the House of Representatives, Jesse H. Rhodes and Brian F. Schaffner found that, "millionaires receive about twice as much representation when they comprise about 5 percent of the district's population than the poorest wealth group does when it makes up 50 percent of the district." In fact, the increasing influence of the rich over Congress is the leading driver of polarization in modern politics, with the rich using the political system to entrench wealth by pushing for tax breaks and blocking redistributive policies.
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American Democracy is Owned by the Rich | Al Jazeera America
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/2/new-evidence-suggests-that-the-rich-own-our-democracy.html
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American Democracy is Owned by the Rich | Al Jazeera America
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/2/new-evidence-suggests-that-the-rich-own-our-democracy.html
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Shared via my feedly reader
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