This is easy...
look at the campaign contribution leaders of the committee chairman.
there are websites that track these things.
Whenever a big issue comes up you see the money flowing into those chairman and the list dominated by the people who need those chairman to vote their way.
Here is another one...
The dems could have easily had single payer as Obamacare never got any Republican votes.
But we got the crap we got... because the insurance companies (who are owned by Buffett and wall street) told the dems there would be no single payer and that individuals would be forced to pay them money.
No person on earth... other than an insurance company lobbyist thinks obamacare is better than single payer.
How did it happen... big money.
How did Bush decide to give away drugs to seniors instead of saving the govt money and negotiating volume discounts...
same lobby.
--
How do trillions get wasted (not every dollar but a larger part) on homeland security and defense when in reality we could have fences and safer borders and pull back from spending all over the world like Ron Paul argues...
big money.
--
how do our public lands get drilled and mined and the govt not get massive income off it so we could lower taxes ...
big money.
--
how is it that the govt borrows money that it has the soverign right to print... pay interest on the money and even big fees to the banks who sell the bonds....
I will let you figure that out yourself.
--
How is it on almost every big issue the majority of the people are pissed... big money lobbyists.
Our congress whores itself out for big money.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamasdeal/view/
"The stakes couldn't be much higher," former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) tells FRONTLINE about what was involved in the landmark health care legislation. "We're talking about almost 20 percent of our gross domestic product today, $2.5 trillion. Literally tens, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on lobbying. Every special interest has their oar in the water."
To navigate the process of health reform, President Obama turned to his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a consummate deal maker, who helped stock the West Wing with an all-star lineup of congressional insiders. But almost immediately, a key member of the team was forced to step down, and the country's greatest champion of health reform, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), was sidelined with incurable brain cancer. The administration's hopes for reform rested with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the powerful head of the Senate Finance Committee, who also happened to be one of the Senate's top recipients of special interest money from the health care industry.
The White House encouraged Baucus to quietly negotiate deals with the insurance lobby, drug companies and other special interest groups, despite promises to run a different kind of White House. "The president said that having people at the table is better than having them throw stuff at the table," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tells FRONTLINE.
But the deals were often controversial. FRONTLINE investigates how, near the start of the health care reform process, Baucus and the White House negotiated a secret $80 billion deal with Billy Tauzin, the former Louisiana congressman who had become the pharmaceutical industry's top lobbyist.
"People who thought that the pharmaceutical industry was still reaping profits that were excessive were unhappy with that deal and were particularly unhappy that it got cut behind closed doors," says the co-chair of Obama's transition team, John Podesta.
The pact with Tauzin was only the beginning of a series of deals designed to win over potential opponents. The most notorious agreement, known as the "Cornhusker Kickback," was concluded only days before a vote on the health care bill in the Senate. In exchange for the support of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), the White House and Senate leaders agreed to spend $100 million to benefit Nebraska.
The administration argued the deals were necessary to secure health reform. But the deals backfired. "It's not a pretty process," says David Gergen, who's been an adviser to four different presidents, both Republican and Democratic, over the last several decades. "There is deal making -- that's the way it's been done for a long time. But those deals done in your front parlor can be pretty smelly. The public was already up to here with what they were seeing in Washington, and I think it just put them over the side."
The backlash grew across the country. The president's approval ratings sunk, the Democrats lost control of Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, and the push for health care reform was suddenly in peril.
"The grassroots of America had turned against this," Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) tells FRONTLINE. "Health care was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back."
look at the campaign contribution leaders of the committee chairman.
there are websites that track these things.
Whenever a big issue comes up you see the money flowing into those chairman and the list dominated by the people who need those chairman to vote their way.
Here is another one...
The dems could have easily had single payer as Obamacare never got any Republican votes.
But we got the crap we got... because the insurance companies (who are owned by Buffett and wall street) told the dems there would be no single payer and that individuals would be forced to pay them money.
No person on earth... other than an insurance company lobbyist thinks obamacare is better than single payer.
How did it happen... big money.
How did Bush decide to give away drugs to seniors instead of saving the govt money and negotiating volume discounts...
same lobby.
--
How do trillions get wasted (not every dollar but a larger part) on homeland security and defense when in reality we could have fences and safer borders and pull back from spending all over the world like Ron Paul argues...
big money.
--
how do our public lands get drilled and mined and the govt not get massive income off it so we could lower taxes ...
big money.
--
how is it that the govt borrows money that it has the soverign right to print... pay interest on the money and even big fees to the banks who sell the bonds....
I will let you figure that out yourself.
--
How is it on almost every big issue the majority of the people are pissed... big money lobbyists.
Our congress whores itself out for big money.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamasdeal/view/
"The stakes couldn't be much higher," former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) tells FRONTLINE about what was involved in the landmark health care legislation. "We're talking about almost 20 percent of our gross domestic product today, $2.5 trillion. Literally tens, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on lobbying. Every special interest has their oar in the water."
To navigate the process of health reform, President Obama turned to his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a consummate deal maker, who helped stock the West Wing with an all-star lineup of congressional insiders. But almost immediately, a key member of the team was forced to step down, and the country's greatest champion of health reform, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), was sidelined with incurable brain cancer. The administration's hopes for reform rested with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the powerful head of the Senate Finance Committee, who also happened to be one of the Senate's top recipients of special interest money from the health care industry.
The White House encouraged Baucus to quietly negotiate deals with the insurance lobby, drug companies and other special interest groups, despite promises to run a different kind of White House. "The president said that having people at the table is better than having them throw stuff at the table," White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tells FRONTLINE.
But the deals were often controversial. FRONTLINE investigates how, near the start of the health care reform process, Baucus and the White House negotiated a secret $80 billion deal with Billy Tauzin, the former Louisiana congressman who had become the pharmaceutical industry's top lobbyist.
"People who thought that the pharmaceutical industry was still reaping profits that were excessive were unhappy with that deal and were particularly unhappy that it got cut behind closed doors," says the co-chair of Obama's transition team, John Podesta.
The pact with Tauzin was only the beginning of a series of deals designed to win over potential opponents. The most notorious agreement, known as the "Cornhusker Kickback," was concluded only days before a vote on the health care bill in the Senate. In exchange for the support of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), the White House and Senate leaders agreed to spend $100 million to benefit Nebraska.
The administration argued the deals were necessary to secure health reform. But the deals backfired. "It's not a pretty process," says David Gergen, who's been an adviser to four different presidents, both Republican and Democratic, over the last several decades. "There is deal making -- that's the way it's been done for a long time. But those deals done in your front parlor can be pretty smelly. The public was already up to here with what they were seeing in Washington, and I think it just put them over the side."
The backlash grew across the country. The president's approval ratings sunk, the Democrats lost control of Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, and the push for health care reform was suddenly in peril.
"The grassroots of America had turned against this," Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) tells FRONTLINE. "Health care was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back."