Want to know why this is happening? The bottom line? This.

[Sparkly]

16. I think it's money, but it goes way beyond that.

(Tin foil hat on)

The Koch brothers are billionaires. They vowed $60 million to feat Obama. They've donated at least $500k to Heritage Action.

Koch industries spans 50 countries. Halliburton and KBR, Berkshire Hathaway... It's cliché, but it's true: This is a global economy. Fewer and fewer multinational corporations & conglomerates own EVERYthing.

And you know what's inconvenient for all of them? We are. They've spent fortunes fighting EPA regulations, and calling global warming a hoax. They've spent fortunes convincing workers that labor unions are bad. And they've spent about 40 years creating this pseudo-religious, pseudo-patriotic, hateful group determined to take down the American government.

How can anybody believe they care about the economy when they're obviously working to bring it down?

What they want: Desperate American labor willing to work for third-world wages, bowing down with gratitude to the nice rich man who gave them a job. They want a permanent underclass, worldwide, for desperate, dirt cheap labor that doesn't demand pesky "socialist" things like governments of the people or healthcare.

That's the only thing I can come up with.