Who Really Controls the US?

Not long ago, Robert Samuelson wrote an interesting column for The Washington Post. It refutes the widespread notion that the rich are running our country. Samuelson notes that since the early 1980s, annual outlays for the poor, such as Medicaid, skyrocketed from $126 billion to $626 billion. (The figures are adjusted for inflation-- 2011 dollars.) The average poor person currently receives $13,000 in federal aid, over triple what he got in 1980 ($4,300). The middle class has benefitted even more from government largesse--$725 billion from Social Security in 2011 and $560 billion from Medicare. Social spending amounts to $2.1 trillion annually--well over half of all spending.
The obvious conclusion is that the masses, projecting power through the ballot, are very much in control, not the rich. Samuelson wrote that the need for "pleasing as many people as possible" explains the deficit, and that fixing the problem requires sacrifice. Unfortunately, sacrifice is no way to please the people, and win elections. As I've said for many years, the real problem is the democratic system itself. To maintain his influence, Samuelson can't state that openly. It is, however, the obvious implication, and reality.