Interactive: How health lobbyists influenced the reform bill
Medill News Service and the Center for Responsive Politics
For the Chicago Tribune
Behind Congress' overhaul of the $2 trillion health care system is an army of lobbyists with a heavy complement of insiders, former staffers who had either worked for Congressional leaders or for congressmen who worked on committees that had a hand in shaping the legislation. This database details more than 200 of these former staffers who lobbied health care issues in 2008 and 2009. There are 14 former chiefs of staff and four former deputy chiefs of staff among them.
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Filed under: Health Care |
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Will someone please tell me how to neutralize the power of special interest groups when the people –the enlightened college kids and urban residents – refuse to get involved in the political process? We proved before the election that populists can defeat the special interests. However, come November 5, political involvement has come to a screeching halt for most people. Special interest groups get their way because they are most active. If all of the people who voted for reform bothered calling their congress people and senators, you would see a much different bill than the one we have. It is no secret that most everyone in Washington is self-interested and concerned with their own livelihood first. As true reformers, we need to make them fear that livelihood if they do not vote for our interests. During the election, you heard Obama say several times, "I Cannot Do This Without You." What that means is, he cannot bring reform to Washington by himself. The teabaggers had a march on Washington, why didn't the millions of uninsured have a march on Washington? Surely, it would have put the teabagger crowd to shame. Washington and the media turns on populist action. Electing Obama in great numbers and then retreating to the sidelines, is like fielding a football team comprised solely of a quarterback, letting him get trounced, and then complaining when he doesn’t win the Superbowl. This is simply the consequence of apathy.