You should take the time to listen to listen to this whole segment. Yes it is that good.
Steven Colbert: “This happens not infrequently. There will be something like DACA or individual background checks where the vast majority of both parties (in individual polls) beleive that something should happen, and nothing happens in Washington DC. And then people throw up their hands in despair, and kind of lose the force of action because they feel that nothing can be done. You’re in Washington, you’re in the Senate. Is Washington owned by corporations, as we all cynically fear?”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “Well yeah. I beleive that, first of all we have dark money in politics, we have unlimited corporate spending, with no accountability, no transparency. So we have to get money out of politics.
Steven Colbert: “What corporations give to you?”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “I just banned corporate PAC checks actually. Because I think it’s really important that...”
Steven Colbert: “You take no corporate money?”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “No corporate money.”
Steven Colbert: “Is anybody joining you on this Bandwagon?”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “I beleive people have already. Cory Booker joined right away, so did other people who are already doing it, several of my colleges. And the reason I beleive we have to lead by example on this because we have to start taking the money out of politics, because it undermines our democracy. Money is NOT speech. I do not beleive the Supreme Court saying money is speech and corporations have the same rights as Americans. That is not true. It is false. We need publicly funded elections. You need to get the soft corruption out. You need to take the hard corruption out. You need to take away the voice and the out-sized influence that corporations have over congress.
And the NRA is one of the worst offenders!"
Steven Colbert: “You’ve been in DC since 2007. What can’t there be any meaningful reform? Or even any meaningless reform? There’s absolutely no action.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “First I just want to say my heart is broken. This is unfathomable how many deaths we’ve has to see over and over and over again. And congress has done nothing, the silence is literally defining. And they don’t get anything done because the NRA has a choke-hold on the Congress. The NRA is concerned only with gun sales. It’s all about the money. It is all about greed.
It has nothing to do with the Second Amendment.