Corrupts Hilarious at Musk's Joke

They say that Elon Musk is serious about a proposal to improve the already high salaries of American congressmen to prevent them from being tempted by the predominant menace of corruption.

Musk, considered the richest man in the world, thus intends, as a "good Samaritan", to show the honest way to specimens of people who have long been undermined in their morals by immoral lobbying, which has its cradle in the United States and has permeated the vast majority of congressmen left and right.

Musk should not need much information on this matter, when he is very close to the chancellor of the current government of Donald Trump, the Secretary of State of lamentable Cuban origin Marco Rubio, repeatedly benefited by such despicable and lethal entities as the American Rifle Association.

Another Cuban-born man, Ted Cruz, is in the same situation, while a third, Bob Menendez, was not satisfied with the perks that lobbying grants, but, confident in his impunity, he did botched jobs that helped him gain gold, precious stones and many dollars, an abuse that became a scandal and forced the establishment to punish him with several years in prison.

These are the most noteworthy elements of Cuban origin in these years, with Rubio standing out in the recent measures against the Cuban people dictated by the Trump administration to make the blockade against Cuba more infamous.

The aforementioned, when he was a senator, became notorious when the application of the so-called Inter-American Democratic Charter to Venezuela was being discussed within the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) at the request of the servile Secretary General, Luis Almagro, for alleged violations of the institutional order. Rubio exerted strong pressure on the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Haiti to vote in favor of said application, which was defeated.

When the cancelling and replacement of the health program established by the Barack Obama government, known as Obamacare, was being discussed in the US Congress, and the vote was very close due to the opposition of legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, to the point that one vote could be decisive in deciding the matter, the Cuban-American Mario Díaz-Balart conditioned his support for Donald Trump's proposal on the latter annulling the advances approved by the Democratic president in the relations of the United States with Cuba, thereby proving not only his moral and ethical character, but also the hatred he feels for the Cuban Revolution.

Later, two legislators of Cuban origin, Ileana Ros Lehtinen and Albio Sires, presented to the US Senate a project entitled Nica-Act HR, whose objective was to have the United States vote against the granting of loans from international financial organizations to Nicaragua.

EVEN IF THE SALARY IS RAISED

For Musk, director of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), "it might make sense to increase compensation for Congress and senior government officials to reduce incitement to corruption, since the latter could be up to a thousand times more expensive," even though US congressmen earn $174,000 a year and their salary is adjusted upwards to match the inflation.

Last December, Musk himself had opposed a draft of a congressional bill that sought to introduce a "cost-of-living adjustment," which would open the door to a salary increase for lawmakers, which made the billionaire say that "any House or Senate congressman who votes in favor of this outrageous spending bill deserves to lose his seat”.

Currently, according to the North American press, several legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, are in favor of a salary increase, claiming that it could attract "new talent" (another joke) to politics.

THE POWER OF THE LOBBIES

One wonders if Musk is sincere and wants to prevent legislators from becoming corrupt or continuing to become corrupt, why doesn't he fight against the power of the lobbies?

A recent study by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland, in collaboration with the American media outlet Politico, reveals the pressure exerted by lobbies linked to large companies on legislators in the United States Congress.

The data analysis shows how, over the last two decades, congressmen have benefited from up to 17,000 trips with luxury stays and all expenses paid by ‘non-profit’ front organizations behind which are large business groups.

One of the most serious cases concerns the Congressional Institute, a ‘non-profit’ entity based in Virginia that claims to be ‘committed to the excellence of members of Congress’ and that organizes ‘conferences and development opportunities’. This organization is linked to the Republican Party and manages a budget of three million dollars that it receives from various private groups, such as the Business Roundtable, an association with more than 200 CEOs of the main companies in the United States, or the American Hospital Association, a large business group in the private health sector that has 5,000 hospitals throughout the country, which opposes low-income people without health insurance receiving free care.

The Congressional Institute is dedicated to organizing corporate-sponsored trips to get congressmen to approve legislation favorable to their private business interests. These multi-day trips to luxury hotels and resorts, with gifts included, take place in a social and somewhat leisurely environment in which they seek to strengthen ties of friendship that make possible “favors” from the political sphere.

Among the companies that resort to this lobbying activity are giants such as Exxon Mobil, Toyota, JPMorgan Chase, Meta (formerly Facebook), Microsoft or Google.

The Congressional Institute is not an isolated case. Lobbying is a normal activity in the US Congress. It’s a nest of impunity that is legal because they are front organizations that operate behind the facade of non-profit entities and that ultimately dominate politics in the United States.

LOBBYING IS INDECENCY

The term lobbyist comes from the fact that historically interest groups waited for politicians in the lobby of Parliament in order to manipulate them. To this day, in most developed countries, this practice has become a very well-paid profession.

Although a modern lobbyist no longer waits for politicians in the lobby, the rules of the game have not changed much: influencing the passage of laws that benefit one at the expense of others. Therefore, any interest group yearns to hire those who achieve “results.”

It should be obvious to any impartial observer that the lobbyist is the enemy of progress. People who dedicate their lives to the search for political rents represent a huge opportunity cost. Not only do they cause great damage with their interventions, which — most of the time — sabotage the market and competition, it also means giving up a productive contribution to the material progress of society.

Their business is to take from others, instead of creating for others. This is why any institutional rule that reduces lobbying should be applauded, but, really, this element should never have been allowed because it’s indecent.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff