How the Drug Lobby Stole Health Care
From Time:
“It’s understandable the drugmakers would want a roll-call accounting of who their friends and enemies are, considering the size of the investment they are making on Capitol Hill: in the first six months of this year alone, drug and biotech companies and their trade associations spent more than $110 million — that’s about $609,000 a day — to influence lawmakers, according to figures compiled by the nonpartisan watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics. The drug industry’s legion of registered lobbyists numbers 1,228, or 2.3 for every member of Congress. And its campaign contributions to current members of Waxman’s committee have totaled $2.6 million over the past three years. The return on that investment has been considerable, both in the House and in the Senate. “We’ve done very well,” says lobbyist Jim Greenwood, a former Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania who was a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and now heads the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). “We carried a majority of the Democrats and a majority of the Republicans in each of the committees, and by very clear margins.”
As always, one of the best predictors of the product of a Congressional bill is who is holding the biggest receipt. When we’ve got drug companies happy about the pending health care bill, it makes me lose a little bit of faith.
Comments
One Comment on How the Drug Lobby Stole Health Care
-
karen maune on
Fri, 23rd Oct 2009 4:58 PM
When “Joe Public” says, “But there’s nothing we can do”, tell his, her and it that we COULD demand the END OF LOBBYING in all our government entities. Let’s FORGET ABOUT the non-life threatening issues now and make THIS the number one priority; ELECTION REFORM is number 2. Our system just keeps moving around the SAME wealthy people…and NOTHING REALLY CHANGES. Don’t pretend AMERICAN PUBLIC. We’re all fighting the SAME BATTLE. ( All except the cream at the top of the public milk bottle). Are these issues worth millions of people converging on Washington? YES, if Americans are sick of private companies sucking up public, TAX PAYER MONEY!
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
-
Our Sponsors
Visit our Sponsors
Networked Blogs
