Tom and Marcella gave their three children each a bowl of rice and half an apple for supper last night.  They both work at minimum wage jobs and payday is a few days away yet, so they are rationing food carefully.  Audrey’s little girl … her name is Sarah, but they call her Muffin … is diabetic and almost out of insulin.  Audrey is out of work, has no insurance, and no money to pay for Muffin’s insulin.  Jeff’s wife died last month of Covid and he is struggling to raise their three children without her after losing his job because he missed so much time at work during her illness.  He holds in his hand an eviction notice because he doesn’t have money to pay the rent.  Robert, once a proud man with a job, a home, and a family now lives under a highway overpass, his few possessions in a cardboard box, since the company he worked for shut down their U.S. operations and in the pandemic era he was unable to find another job.

Meanwhile …

Billionaire Peter Thiel has so far poured over $25 million into the races of Blake Masters in Arizona and J.D. Vance in Ohio. Kenneth C. Griffin, the CEO of giant hedge fund Citadel, is bankrolling Republican super PACs to the tune of nearly $50 million. Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman of giant hedge fund Blackstone, has so far contributed a combined $20 million to the main House and Senate Republican super PAC.  And the list goes on.

How many children could have had a few healthy meals, or how many families could have paid their rent and utilities with the millions of dollars being given to already-wealthy political candidates?

Need I say more?