 So we've been seeing a bit of friendly competition between two oligarchs Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and as you all know by now Elon Musk he has his space company space X and blue origin is owned by Jeff Bezos So these two oligarchs have been competing for a private government contract with NASA That is very very lucrative and unfortunately for Jeff Bezos Elon Musk emerged victorious However, there are some United States senators one particular who feel really bad that this oligarch didn't get this Multi-billion-dollar contract for his private space firm. So what did the Senate decide to do? carve out their own Allocation of resources so Jeff Bezos can also get his own Private government contract so both of these oligarchs can be satisfied. I Wish I were making this up, but I'm not the details are that shocking So as Sarah Sarota and Ryan Grimm of the Intercept report now that Jeff Bezos's spaceflight company blue origin has lost a multi-billion dollar Contract to Elon Musk's space X Congress is prepping the ground for Bezos to win a contract anyway Ordering NASA to make not one but two awards The order would come through the endless frontier act a bill to beef up resources for science and technology research That's being debated on the Senate floor this week an amendment was added to that legislation by Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington to hand over 10 billion dollars to NASA money that will most likely go to blue origin a Company that's headquartered in Cantwell's home state. Oh very telling Cantwell's amendment is no sure about though senator Bernie Sanders introduced the last-minute amendment Monday to eliminate the 10 billion dollars Quote it does not make a lot of sense to me that we would provide billions of dollars to a company owned by the wealthiest guy in America Sanders told the Intercept on Tuesday blue origin spent $625,000 lobbying the Senate in the first three months of 2021 according to lobbying disclosure records among that spending was $50,000 to a team of lobbyists at a firm called Clark Hill that would specifically focus on the moon landing program The team includes John Colberson a former member of the house from Texas and one-time chair of the house appropriations Subcommittee that covers science policy The White House also appointed Colberson last year to the National Space Council users advisory group that makes policy Recommendations to NASA after the laws blue origin and dynamics filed protests with the government accountability office Which currently remain open? But Congress seems to want to bypass the watchdog with a multi-billion dollar handout to NASA to award more contracts So this is being done at the behest of Jeff Bezos presumably just to make sure that he's happy Are we shocked? I don't think anyone who watches this channel and knows that we live in a late-stage capitalist society Is going to be shocked by this but I mean this is why I say all the time that normal Americans Do not have an impact on policy outcomes and also because this is backed up by political science research So a 2014 Princeton University study confirmed that normal Americans have a statistically insignificant impact on policy outcomes However when they measured the impact and influence of business interests and elites And how much sway they have over policy outcomes. They have all the say over policy outcomes And we're seeing this in action. Not only does Maria Cantwell Want this contract awarded because this is essentially pork this benefits her state It'll create jobs in her state But also because they want to make sure that Jeff Bezos who may or may not fund future campaigns Who's been lobbying a lot of members of Congress? They want to make sure that this individual stays happy and so if you're forced to choose between one of two companies Both run by oligarchs with a lot of power and influence. Well, I mean, what's the best step to take? You just make both of them happy and you award the contract originally to one company But then you carve out a special exemption for Jeff Bezos company as well and make sure that his company gets billions of dollars, too This is in a country where we have to beg the Democratic Party's president Joe Biden to just cancel $10,000 of student loan debt where you have to beg the president to give us the $2,000 that he promised as opposed to $1400 the water down amount, but yet when it comes to things like this, they have all the money in the world Now I subscribe to modern monetary theory So I do not believe that taxes fund spending But if you are of the belief that we only have a limited amount of resources Which the overwhelming majority of members of Congress do and in the Senate does does I Mean are they not showing where their priorities lie? Are they not telling you everything that you need to know about them? They care more about the feelings of oligarchs than they do about normal Americans and that is morally Reprehensible, so I mean I don't have much commentary to add here I think that the details of the story speaks for itself And I think that if you live in Washington state then you should have a lot of questions for your senator Who very clearly isn't looking out for your interests And she seems to be fighting harder for a multi-billionaire in oligarch than you and you should ask her about this the next time You have the opportunity to do so at a town hall