Welcome to Suspicious Angels

It’s the silly season again. Aspiring candidates from both parties in hot pursuit of the “golden goose,” in this case a chance to snag one of the congressional seats (435 house seats and 35 senate seats) up for grabs in November. With the election about two months away and hotly contested primaries taking place right now, promises from hopeful candidates festoon the airwaves. These promises come in all shapes and sizes—”I am fighting for you” “I will ban congressional stock trading, lower the cost of housing and healthcare, make the wealthy pay their fair share, refuse corporate PAC money” are oft-repeated promises from democratic candidates. When the campaigns end, so do the promises. Case in point: Zohran Mamdani, who became New York’s mayor partly on his promise to enact a wealth tax. He was barely installed when he walked back that promise substituting the lame resolve to tax only the second homes of rich residents (“pied-a-terre” tax).

Running for congress is no walk in the park. Making promises you have no intention of keeping (Obama is the poster boy for that little scam) is the easiest part of the job. Fundraising is the hardest. In between are the endless “rubber chicken” dinners, the never-ending “meet and greets,” and all the other excruciating public performances that come with the territory. Which begs the question —what’s in it for the winners?

How would you like to have a “job” that suggests (not requires) you to show up less than half the yearly work days (48% or 119 days of 250 yearly work days). Pretty cushy yes? That applies if you are one of the 435 members of the House of Representatives. The downside is a two-year election cycle so that as soon as you win, you must start running again You have to work a little (not much) harder if you are a senator. The Senate is open 158 days (63% of the yearly work days). To compensate for such a shocking level of activity, their term extends six years.

Compare that with the average American working stiff, blue or white collar, who is required (not optional) to work 235-240 days every year. Of course, there are exceptions. Public and private school teachers work around 190 days, the length of the average school year.  But they pay for it with low-ball average salaries of $60,000 to $67,000. For members of Congress whose work schedule is one-third to one quarter shorter, the base salary ix $174,000. If you happen to be in what Congress considers the leadership elite, your salary is bumped up to $193,000 or even a ludicrous $223,500 (Speaker of the House). In a grand gesture of virtue signaling, since 2009, Congress has declined cost of living increases (although it is worth noting that unlike working Americans mired in the capitalist economy, Congress sets its own salaries.) Keep in mind that since 73% of senators and almost of half of representatives (49%) have a net worth of $1 million+, foregoing a raise does not have a measurable effect on their comfortable lives. Contrast that with the plight of over one-third of Americans (37%) who can’t afford an emergency expense over $400.

With these facts in mind, how to explain those current (and former) members of congress who have filed suit for damages arguing that without the cost of living (COLA) yearly increases that since 2009 the congress has voted to decline, their salaries are unconstitutionally suppressed One of the plaintiffs, Steny Hoyer, has a net worth of $4 million. If they win, guess who is on the hook for retroactive pay raises, including for former members and also higher pension benefits? The total could easily exceed $100 million. Once again, the “servants of the people” look to their constituents to take on this added burden. Does greed ever take a holiday? Not in the U.S. Congress.

Here are some of the other Congressional perks taxpayers are on the hook for. A particularly galling one goes by the innocuous name of death gratuity payments. This nifty little scheme gives the heirs of members who die while in office a tax-free gift of one year of the member’s salary. Since one-third of the senate (36 members) is age 70 or older with one Senator (Chuck Grassley) aged 91 and 20% of the House 70+ (24 members of both houses are 80 or older), no doubt that perk will be used frequently. A recent example — Senator Lindsay Graham died July 11. Although his net worth was $1.4 million, his heirs will still get his year’s salary —$174,000 tax free. For the last 25 years since 2000 that boondoggle has cost taxpayers a stunning $7 million.

Hard as it is to believe, that’s peanuts compared to the perks living members of Congress are “entitled to” as “servants of the people.” One biggie is the “franking privilege” (a real boon at election time when lawmakers can mail anything to the people they represent or anyone else without paying postage) There’s lots more. Read and weep—insurance: both health and life. You pay for 75% of their health insurance (when they’re not getting it for $54 per month from the Office of the Attending Physician (the OAP cost taxpayers $5 million per year). For Congress people who have been living large on the taxpayers’ dime for decades (think Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Grassley), their luxurious life is chock full of free limousine rides, to die for choice parking spots on Capitol Hill and at the airport. At taxpayers’ expense they can take junkets to far-flung locations (as long as it can be considered “official” congressional travel which it always is). It goes without saying that travel to their home districts is another perk— considered a must for “hard-working” members of Congress. Lest we forget to mention it, members have their own private, palatial health club complete with gym facilities and a wide range of taxpayer-funded fine (aka expensive) furnishings to spruce up their various offices.

Right about now you might be scratching your head, doing finger math trying to figure out how much this is costing you. Get ready for it: the total taxpayers are going to be soaked to fund Congress in 2026 is $7.1billion — $7.3 billion.

What do we get for trudging to the polls every two years besides lightening our wallets by over $7 billion? Has either house of Congress proposed a bill for the problems most Americans agree need fixing like U.S. aggression against Iran (a possible war crime) and its consequences: the U.S. economy in crisis. Skyrocketing prices (gas now over $4 per gallon) and rising inflation which has outpaced wage growth. Americans daily feel the pain of economic inequality, healthcare costs out of control leaving almost 3 million without health insurance, higher education that most Americans cannot afford (total student debt is almost $2 trillion), and lack of affordable housing.

Maybe we’re being too critical. Maybe the 48% of the yearly work days that the House is in session and the 63% that the Senate works has made a difference. Let’s hear how a perennial cheerleader for the political morass in Washington sees it. The 119th U.S. Congress had a historically low legislative output during its initial session in 2025, passing fewer than 40 substantive bills into law… [The Washington Post].   Despite that less than rave review, Congress is not totally bereft of ideas. A perennial favorite — reducing the deficit by cutting various benefits and services for the American people.

What can the people do about it? Here’s an idea. Make Congress a part time job. When you add up their accomplishments over the years, what do you get? A part-time level of activity masquerading as a full-time gig.  There is a precedent for making the U.S. legislative body part-time.  From the first Congressional session in 1789 through the 1930s, the House and Senate usually convened in December and adjourned in the spring. [“…There were years in the 1800s where Congress ran budget surpluses because they didn’t have anything to spend money on.” Jason Roberts, University of North Carolina.]

There’s an idea with wings.

All great world-historic facts and personages appear… twice…the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” [Marx and Hegel]

The Obama cabal has done it again! Almost two decades after their first stroke of marketing genius, in 2008, when they catapulted Barack Obama, a lowly first term senator into the first black president of the U.S, they (and he as leader) did it again. This time building a monument to himself following in the tradition of FDR who was the first U.S. president to indulge in self-glorification. FDR’s successors including Obama took their cue and built their own vanity projects which evolved into the presidential library system. A classic example of putting lipstick on a whole collection of pigs.

Exploiting his bona fides as the ex-leader of a powerful but declining hegemon, he commissioned the monstrosity known as the Barack Obama Presidential Center —the most expensive presidential library or museum ever constructed, surpassing all others by a wide margin.  The George W Bush library came in second at a paltry $500 million. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, was a real piker—his library tipped the scales at a mere $165 million. Maybe he’ll ask for a do-over.

About that $850 million which the Obama lackeys announced had been totally funded by private donations. What they “forgot” to mention was the $123 million Illinois taxpayer money that Chicago and Illinois government leaders ponied up and “donated” to the Obama Foundation to beautify the surrounding area. Millions in upgrades it must be added that were not available when “ordinary folks” lived, worked and played in the same space.

Before deciding whether this billion-dollar spectacle of pomp and circumstance bears the slightest resemblance to the achievements of the honoree, let’s go back to November 4, 2008 in Grant Park, Chicago when Obama, using his genius for inspirational rhetoric, made a lot of big promises to the people as he became the 44^th president of the U.S. “This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to … promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm…that while we breathe, we hope.

 “Promote the cause of peace?”  Admittedly a biggie. How did he do? Aside from the two wars he inherited (Iraq and Afghanistan) and continued, his administration initiated five more military campaigns including Libya and Syria and significantly expanded the use of drone strikes as killing machines. Along the way he also managed to kill two American citizens, one a teenager. His excuse? Without even a hint of due process, he deemed them terrorists at his “Terror Tuesday” hoe downs.

He did much better with a second set of promises which his team made sure didn’t receive the publicity of the ones he had no intention of keeping. These he made to his billionaire buddies promising them, among other guarantees, the freedom to rip off ordinary Americans’ healthcare— “Healthcare is a desirable industry for PE investment, given its potential for high revenue which leads to significant returns on investment for the firms.” [University of Chicago Business Law Review].

The people who get their phone calls returned are the same ones who are the beneficiaries of a grateful administration. They more often than not are the owners of private equity criminal organizations (aka shadow banks). Under Obama the flood gates of money and power swelled their bank accounts and produced 935 American billionaires. Borrowing a page from the Mafia time-honored system of reciprocity where mob bosses return favors, protection, or loyalty to individuals who have aided their operations, these gangsters showed their appreciation by pouring almost a billion dollars into Obama’s Presidential Center aka the “beacon of hope.”

Here’s Michelle Obama explaining to those of us too dim to get how mightily Obama labored for one segment of Americans, the folks who would bankroll his retirement while they were bankrupting the rest of us: “The Obama Presidential Center was created as a beacon of hope…aa monument to our unshakeable values, the ones my husband has exemplified his entire life—equality, honesty, empathy, inclusion, fairness…

For fact checking purposes, let’s look at two of his greatest “achievements—” the ACA which helped pave the way for private equity’s increased role in healthcare and Americans’ steady decline in longevity. This disaster was reflected in his response to the foreclosure crisis once again rewarding his billionaire bros at the expense of everyone else by helping private equity buy the nation’s private homes for peanuts then turn around and rent them back to their former owners. Ironic isn’t it that the hope in that silly “beacon of hope” metaphor turns out to be the same hope (partnered with change) that Obama used to convince the American people that his agenda was different from his predecessors when it wasn’t No surprise that the three living former presidents — Bush, Clinton and Biden attended the goings on. It must have been a real meeting of the minds for these would-be members of the “shared values club.” The question we should all ponder is: shared with whom. Ask Jeff Bezos or Oprah Winfrey or a gaggle of CEOS who lead some of the world’s wealthiest corporations why they are willing to part with millions (for Bezos it was $100 million, admittedly chump change for him) to express their gratitude for the president whose policies made them billionaires.

Ten years ago in 2016 as Obama was wrapping up his second term, Suspicious Angels published a piece (“Legacy: Obama and Ours”) documenting Obama’s care and feeding of the people most important to him — the parasites who populate the American oligarchic class.

For those of you who might not have been able to vote in 2017 and especially for those of you who even today cannot believe how those “hopey, changey” promises melted before the ink was even dry on his presidential seal, click on the link below to read the whole shameful story of Obama’s time in office. Like the Wizard Oz who hid his fakery behind a curtain, Obama hid his duplicity behind slogans and catch phrases like “because of what we did… in this election…change has come to America”…, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers… the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. It still sounded good until we discovered that all the happy talk was just that. The real winners of the Obama presidency were the folks he cared most about —his campaign donors aka the lifeline of the Obama presidency

The metaphorical curtain has now been lifted to reveal the crony capitalism that like some killer parasite has invaded all of our “democratic” institutions —the American healthcare system which puts profit far ahead of patient care, an education system which doesn’t educate and a financial system that leaves forty percent of Americans unable to afford a car repair.

Where does that leave us?

Back at Michelle Obama’s “beacon of hope” trope and those “unshakeable values.” The ones she attributed to her husband—the ones my husband has exemplified his entire life—equality, honesty, empathy, inclusion, fairness” Unfortunately too late the American people learned it was all part of an elaborate scam: first to get the scammer-in-chief elected, second to keep him in the oval office long enough to change the face of America and finally to insure a wildly profitable retirement. Check, check, and check again. Obama’s holds first place in the pantheon of fakes, frauds and phonies. His real unshakeable values — dishonesty, lack of empathy, unfairness of treatment in all parts of the fading American dream, soaring inequality, and zero inclusion in the era of “haves” and “have nots” aren’t really worth celebrating at all.

Will America ever be ready to elect a president who won’t be coopted by big money hooligans?

Click here to read the story of the Obama presidency 2009 —2017

Once upon a time a very large country found itself nestled between two great oceans which protected it from attack. As the self-described hegemon of the world, it was always on the lookout for real or imagined attacks (mostly imagined it must be confessed). Since its founding 250 years ago, it has been at peace less than 20 years, The present Secretary of Defense has rebranded himself the Secretary of War. To give you an idea of how war-obsessed its leaders are: for 2026, its defense budget is $1 trillion ($1.5 trillion in 2027). Curiously enough, it has not been able to win a war (with the exception of its “glorious” crusade against the 1,500 soldiers of the Granada military) since it helped defeat the Axis powers in 1945. Still, there’s no denying that it is a hydra-headed colossus with 800+ military bases around the world that threatens on a regular basis to rain death and destruction down on weaker countries either directly or through one of its proxies (Ukraine for example). Wait a minute with all this aggressive militarism, veterans must be revered and honored. Not exactly. Beyond a careless “thank you for your service” in the grocery store check-out line, most ignore the 33,000 veterans who are homeless every night in America.

It calls itself the United States of America but that’s a misnomer. With the highest rate of inequality among advanced nations, the majority of its people (the 99%) are united only by their misery— rising prices, an uncertain job market. rising inflation, health insurance premiums going through the roof particularly for 22 million Americans whose insurance premiums doubled or tripled as federal ACA subsidies expired (nationally 14% missed their January premium payment), and skyrocketing housing costs.

The subject of this post is perhaps the biggest scam of all the scams that bedevil most Americans. No, it’s not having a president whose actions and statements (making Canada the 51^st state, annexing Greenland and picking doofuses and baboons as his advisors and cabinet secretaries) suggest he is mentally unhinged. It’s not having participated in the use of sanctions [joining his three predecessor presidents] to kill 38 million people (60% of them children and women) worldwide since 2002. It’s not the U.S. having an educational system that produces American adults able to read only at a 7^th to 8^th grade level while the literacy rate among the people of Russia and China is close to 100%. It’s not even knowing that another in a long line of criminogenic congressman (former Speaker Nancy Pelosi heading the list) used classified information that he received as a member of the House Intelligence Committee to make a killing on the stock market (aided by his wife). It’s called insider trading and if the average American did it, a hefty fine and time in the slammer would be waiting. But for elected officials, it’s the road to riches.

Of all the immoral, often illegal plunder of the public purse, what stands out as the biggest con of all? It’s no secret. The United States has the most expensive healthcare system in the world raking in $5.6 trillion or $16,000+ per American (2025) consuming 20% of GDP. Yet in its primary obligation —the ability to keep its people healthy — the U.S. continues to fail. [Mirror, Mirror 2024 A Portrait of the Failing US health System by The Commonwealth Fund]

The secret sauce that makes possible such stupendous profitability (increasing year after year – up 7.1% in 2025, 8.2% in 2024 – more than three times GDP growth) is the time spent cozying up to elected officials. Not limited by party affiliation, it’s a bipartisan shakedown. At the end of 2022, Joe Biden (who was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Healthcare’s largesse) signed legislation kicking 25 million Americans off Medicaid as a thank you for the “generous” support from the healthcare industry which for his 2020 election campaign topped $13 million. Coincidence? You decide. What about a denizen from the other side of the aisle —President Trump? He has lots to be thankful for. For openers, a rollicking good inauguration (2025 Trump-Vance) made even better with the $11.5 million the healthcare industry kicked in. That’s just the tip of the golden goose. Separately, for the 2024 Trump-Vance campaign, these same gangsters contributed $16.5 million. [Open Secrets]. How altruistic of them. No wait like all the presidents before him, Trump knows that one good turn deserves (demands) another. His good turn happens to be bigger than most other good turns. His OBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) subtracts $1 trillion from Medicaid devastating tens of millions of low-income families, at a cost of 50,000+ lives a year while at the same time gifting $1 trillion in tax cuts for the top 1 percent of Americans.

Healthcare lobbying expenditures rank #1 among all industries, a whopping $867,539,940 (Open Secrets) within striking distance of $1 billion. Equally unsurprising to learn that almost half (44%) of the lobbyists shilling for their healthcare masters are ex-government employees.

U.S. healthcare is a cave-dwelling mutant with three heads: Big Pharma, Big Med and Big Insurance and all three have their tentacles out. The Midas touch has new meaning when it comes to these chiselers. In this article we are marveling at how greedy and corrupt this spawn of empire is. A true triad of horrors.

Let’s look first at Big Pharma and its business model — “Drug companies maximize and exploit research financed by taxpayers to generate marketable new drugs. Then they price their wares to maximize returns for shareholders [Davos Man: How Billionaires Devoured the World”] In the process of their dash to trillions guess who are their biggest suckers (aka customers)? Every American taxpayer, at least those who have tangled with the healthcare empire, which is probably everyone. Decades of systemic propaganda have made them true believers. Often they arrive at the doctor’s door with a list of the drugs they saw advertised on TV. As one of only two countries who allow pharmaceutical DTC (direct to consumer) advertising (New Zealand is the other) the drug companies spent over $7 billion on TV advertising in 2025, a 16% increase over 2024. In 2025, globally Big Pharma raked in $1.7 trillion). Their biggest score was in the U.S. where Americans pay two to three times more for the same drugs as the rest of the world cashing out at more than $720 billion in 2025. [Prescription drugs in the U.S. cost 278% more than in other countries. Big Pharma charges us outrageous prices and then spends more on stock buy-backs and executive pay than R&D—Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib].

Every day is a payday for the executives, investors and owners of Big Pharma. What blessings do the rest of Americans get? For the most unlucky—death. As the third leading cause of death (after heart disease and cancer) 100,000-250,000 die every year taking prescription drugs as prescribed.

Even the feds give Big Pharma a pass. For violations like illegal marketing, kickbacks, and price fixing, Big Pharma has paid $127 billion in penalties since 2000—a mere rounding error.

What about the most corrupt unholy menace—Big Insurance? Maybe their business model will give you a hint: “The uniquely American health insurance system is a business designed to extract profit by maximizing cost and minimizing care to reward owners and shareholders with financial gain” [HC4US.org]. Like the other two big dogs of the healthcare mafia—it’s all about the money and they are rolling in it. In 2025, Big Insurance matched Big Pharma’s profits collecting 1.7 trillion ($54+ billion profit), most of it going into the pockets of owners, executives and investors. They beat their own record, bettering their 2024 performance by $175 billion. With ten million fewer suckers (aka customers), what’s the secret sauce that kept those billions rolling in? Hiking premiums (for both private paying customers and those enrolled in government programs like Medicare and Medicaid and employer sponsored insurance plans), erecting new and more onerous barriers to care and shepherding people into companies they own (especially doctors’ practices). This year premium increases for Obamacare plans rose between 22% and 28%. The effects of this wholly undeserved increase are catastrophic for the 99%—25 million cannot afford health insurance and “nearly 1 in 4 (23%) U.S. working-age adults—approximately 30-31 million people—are considered underinsured, meaning they have health insurance but high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs restrict their access to care.” [2024 “Mirror, Mirror: A Portrait of the US Failing Health System, Commonwealth Fund]. Even the mainstream media, their long-time vassals, are feeling the heat of their viewers’ ire. Every evening nightly news shows recount the stories of patients who have been refused coverage for life-saving treatment ordered by a doctor [NBC Nightly News: The Cost of Denial]. The largest health insurance company in the U.S, UnitedHealth (2025 revenue $448 billion) regularly denies coverage for one-third of the claims submitted to it, one of the highest denial rates in the industry. To make matters worse they lie about it and claim a 98% approval rate contradicted by reliable third-party reports of impartial agencies.

When it comes to Big Med —welcome to the privatized health care system in the U.S. where market metrics (the most important being profitability) dictate the standard of care. Want to know what the P.E. invasion has wrought? 68,000 poor souls die every year because they cannot afford the medicine or medical treatments they need. 25% of cancer patients (1 in 4) die or go bankrupt with the out- of-pocket expenses privatized hospitals and doctor’s practices charge. Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. Raising prices is the sine qua non of private equity healthcare. Price go up 7% to 16% at hospitals acquired by private equity firms and 4% to 20% at the doctors’ practices they take over. Wait, it gets even more outrageous. Unnecessary, sometimes life-threatening procedures become the norm to jack up the bills. At privatized nursing homes the situation is even worse – mortality rates increase after takeover by 11%.

The private equity capture of America’s healthcare system shows no signs of slowing down, In the past decade alone these soulless corporatists have poured more than $1trillion into the healthcare industry. It’s the investment opportunity that is most attractive to greedy capitalists where the market is immense (every American needs medical attention at some time), the rewards in an unregulated market limitless, and the pushback to tame the ever-growing greediness of the purveyors of this wild west atmosphere nonexistent.

U.S. healthcare has become a corporate boondogggle, a multi-payer system that preaches the gospel of cascading profits achieved by a few billionaires at the expense of the rest of Americans. Meanwhile, the American health report card gets a failing grade year after year. Is there a solution?  What about elected officials? No dice. A succession of post-World War II presidents, both Republicans and Democrats (Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, LBJ, Clinton, and Obama) have tried to enact a less inequitable healthcare system and failed. What about Congress, particularly the “Progressive” Caucus? Forget about it. They may talk a good game but when it comes to action, they are MIA. Ever mindful of the massive bribes, the healthcare industry, the lobbyist-in-chief, is capable of throwing their way or of withholding should they deviate from the official healthcare line, they stand four square with the industry and salute.

Maybe the American people need to wake up, shut off their phones, open their eyes and their windows and shout in unison “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore. [Network, 1976]