Health care reform stalled by corporate freedom of speech
Justin Gero
Issue date: 3/5/10 Section: Ed-Op
While that might seem like a lot of money, the campaign donations pale in comparison to what these industries spend lobbying Congress. Nearly $635 million was spent by the health care lobby in 2008 and more than $697 million in 2009. Health care companies and organizations have spent more money lobbying our government than any other industry in the past decade. The defense, entertainment, and education lobbies combined have not spent half as much as the health lobby. In fact, since 1998 the health care lobby has spent exactly $5,118,316,799 lobbying Congress. That's more than $5.1 billion spent by health care companies influencing federal health legislation in the past 11 years, with more than $1.3 billion spent in the last two years alone. This has a tremendous effect on our nation's health policies.
Examining the massive and growing influence of large health care corporations on our elected officials has made one thing especially clear: Before we can pass meaningful health reform, we first need to get money out of politics. These industries have already made $36 million in campaign donations for the 2010 election, and fully expect that number to rise above $100 million by Election Day. This is on top of what might eventually be another half a billion spent on lobbying.
When we say that money is free speech, we give corporations the ability to unleash billions of dollars that drown out the voices of the American people. The American people do not want to be denied life-saving care so that an insurance company can make a profit. The American people do not want to struggle to pay their health care bills and worry about bankruptcy when they are supporting a sick loved-one. Anyone looking at the legislative process today can tell there is something seriously wrong, and one big reason for this is the billions of dollars that give big business more access to Congress.
Those billions not only own every seat at the negotiating table, but give corporations the power to literally write our legislation. This is no exaggeration. In Washington, there are eight health care lobbyists for every member of Congress, and more than 500 of these lobbyists are former Congressional staffers. Corporate lobbyists move from lobbying firms to Congressional offices, and back again. These are the people behind our elected officials, and they give corporations more control over government policy than you or I will ever have.
Can we really expect this kind of a system to produce legislation that does anything to hurt the profitability of these corporate interests? We need real health reform, but first we need campaign-finance reform. There is no way regular Americans can compete with an industry that spends more than half a billion dollars every year to manipulate federal law. Last year on PBS Bill Moyers called this, "a leveraged buyout of democracy." That's exactly what's happening. The American people need to take their government back from the power of multi-million dollar corporations. Get money out of politics and you won't have a perfect system, but it will be a whole lot more representative of the American people and not American business.
Justin Gero is a senior majoring in history & politics (B.A.) and science, technology, & society (M.S.). He is a former editor in chief of The Triangle and can be reached at op-ed@thetriangle.org.
Examining the massive and growing influence of large health care corporations on our elected officials has made one thing especially clear: Before we can pass meaningful health reform, we first need to get money out of politics. These industries have already made $36 million in campaign donations for the 2010 election, and fully expect that number to rise above $100 million by Election Day. This is on top of what might eventually be another half a billion spent on lobbying.
When we say that money is free speech, we give corporations the ability to unleash billions of dollars that drown out the voices of the American people. The American people do not want to be denied life-saving care so that an insurance company can make a profit. The American people do not want to struggle to pay their health care bills and worry about bankruptcy when they are supporting a sick loved-one. Anyone looking at the legislative process today can tell there is something seriously wrong, and one big reason for this is the billions of dollars that give big business more access to Congress.
Those billions not only own every seat at the negotiating table, but give corporations the power to literally write our legislation. This is no exaggeration. In Washington, there are eight health care lobbyists for every member of Congress, and more than 500 of these lobbyists are former Congressional staffers. Corporate lobbyists move from lobbying firms to Congressional offices, and back again. These are the people behind our elected officials, and they give corporations more control over government policy than you or I will ever have.
Can we really expect this kind of a system to produce legislation that does anything to hurt the profitability of these corporate interests? We need real health reform, but first we need campaign-finance reform. There is no way regular Americans can compete with an industry that spends more than half a billion dollars every year to manipulate federal law. Last year on PBS Bill Moyers called this, "a leveraged buyout of democracy." That's exactly what's happening. The American people need to take their government back from the power of multi-million dollar corporations. Get money out of politics and you won't have a perfect system, but it will be a whole lot more representative of the American people and not American business.
Justin Gero is a senior majoring in history & politics (B.A.) and science, technology, & society (M.S.). He is a former editor in chief of The Triangle and can be reached at op-ed@thetriangle.org.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
Susan
posted 3/05/10 @ 10:39 AM EST
The only compromise that will work is to eliminate the madates. Whatever the reason, the republicans are fighting on the side of individual freedom. This author will not even acknowledge (if he even knows) the main issue facing this process. (Continued…)
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