Tag: Dylan Ratigan

GLENS FALLS — Democratic congressional candidate Dylan Ratigan said the country will not be able to fix its problems until it gets money out of politics. Ratigan, who is one of five Democrats running in the NY-21 primary election on June 26, told The Post-Star editorial board on Thursday that the problem in Washington is policy is being crafted to protect the interests of large institutions. “Decisions are made to preserve those interests — even if they are at the expense of people, which they frequently are,” he said. Ratigan, who lives in Lake Placid, said another factor is gerrymandered districts that are designed to keep incumbents in power. When there is little risk that they will be voted out of office, politicians are more beholden to their donors than the public, he said. He cited the fact that a public insurance option was eliminated from the Affordable Care Act at the last minute in 2010. Although Democrats controlled Congress and the presidency, they did not want to include this in the final bill and risk hurting insurance companies. Frustration with the political system is what prompted Ratigan to leave journalism after first working at Bloomberg in New York City and then spending six years at CNBC hosting a show called “Fast Money.” He left CNBC following the economic meltdown in 2008 because he was concerned that his bosses at the channel did not want him to talk about what he believed were the true causes of the financial crisis. “It would have required me to shut up and blame the homeowners and move along,” he said. He started a website called getmoneyout.com and had signed up 250,000 activists.