Millions Spent to Sway Democrats on Health Care

[TomCADem]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — The yearlong legislative fight over health care is drawing to a frenzied close as a multimillion-dollar wave of advertising that rivals the ferocity of a presidential campaign takes aim at about 40 House Democrats whose votes will help determine the fate of President Obama’s top domestic priority.

The coalition of groups opposing the legislation, led by the United States Chamber of Commerce, is singling out 27 Democrats who supported the health care bill last year and 13 who opposed it. The organizations have already spent $11 million this month focusing on these lawmakers, with more spending to come before an expected vote next weekend.

An alliance of groups supporting the health care plan, which works closely with the White House and Democratic leaders, had been spending far less and focusing on fewer districts. But after pharmaceutical companies made a $12 million investment for a final advertising push, spending by both sides for the first time is now nearly the same.

Not only are these swing Democrats being pummeled in the new spate of advertising — which could total $30 million before week’s end — but extensive efforts are under way in Congressional districts, where groups on both sides of the issue are using tactics similar to get-out-the-vote drives to urge constituents to contact their lawmakers. Mr. Obama is calling lawmakers, too, and on Monday is traveling to Ohio to open a weeklong campaign to close this act of the health care debate.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/health/policy/15health.html

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The United States Chamber of Commerce, which represents the interests of big business, is once again leading the charge to kill health care reform while unions are on the other side trying to promote the passage of the pending bills.

Will Democrats on the fense side with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and vote against health care reform, and listen to their base, and vote for the bill.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. Yep. I was in PA over the weekend and I saw one of these CoC advertisements

Scare mongering about Congress's "special rules".

[SandWalker1984]

2. Betcha they don't mention the most powerful group lobbying for this corporate welfare bill

There is a group of the financially elite that has applied major influence on Congress regarding the so called health care reform bill -- it is the Business Roundtable.

There's a must read article by David DeGraw about the Business Roundtable.

Here is part of what David said:

The Business Roundtable is the most powerful activist organization in the United States. Their leaders regularly lobby members of Congress behind closed doors and often meet privately with the President and his administration. Any legislation that affects Roundtable members has almost zero possibility of passing without their support.

For three major examples, look at healthcare and financial reform, along with the military budget. The healthcare reform bill devolved into what amounts to an insurance industry bailout and was drastically altered by Roundtable lobbyists representing interests like WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson. Obama and Congress are trying to please the Roundtable with a bill that supports their interests. This led to the dropping of the public-option put forth in the House bill. However, when it came to finishing the bill, Roundtable members began to walk away from the process. That’s the real reason why the reform bill has stalled. Obama met with the Roundtable on February 24th, in hopes of getting healthcare reform back on track. After that meeting, he held a bipartisan healthcare meeting with members of Congress.

- snip -

Shortly after Obama’s inauguration he held a meeting with Roundtable members at the St. Regis Hotel. The president of the Business Roundtable is John J. Castellani. Throughout the first nine months of Obama’s presidency, Castellani met with him at the White House more than any other person, with the exception of Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue. If you look at the records of people who have spent the most time with Obama in the White House, other than these two, another frequent visitor is Edward Yingling, the president of the American Bankers Association.

These organizations - the Business Roundtable, Chamber of Commerce and the American Bankers Association - along with the Federal Reserve, a secretive quasi-government private institution, form the center of the Economic Elite’s power structure.

****************

As I said, this is a must read article for anyone wanting to "follow the money."

http://www.alternet.org/economy/145996/the_most_powerful_destructive_corporate_business_club_most_americans_have_never_heard_of?page=entire


THE SENATE HCR BILL'S MAIN PURPOSES ARE TWO -- (1) TO GUARANTEE PROFITS FOR THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY AND (2) TO GIVE THEM EVEN MORE POWER AND INFLUENCE OVER FUTURE HEALTH CARE REFORM LEGISLATION.

Once insurance is mandated by law, they will use their influence to make sure health care reform is never taken up again in any meaningful way. Nothing can or will be done to contain their power until the entire health care system collapses.

Don't say later that you have not been warned.

[TomCADem]

5. CBS - "U.S. Chamber to run anti-health-reform ads" - The U.S. Chamber Is Progressive?

The U.S. Chamber has been running ads to kill reform if you haven't noticed.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-chamber-to-run-anti-health-reform-ads-2010-03-09?reflink=MW_news_stmp

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A business coalition of trade groups representing the retail, construction and manufacturing industries announced on Tuesday a multimillion dollar TV ad campaign opposing the health-care reform bills President Obama is trying to enact into law. The ad buy is worth between $4 million and $10 million, Bruce Josten, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a conference call with reporters. It's targeted at U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives in 17 states, and will air on cable first. "We're calling on viewers to tell Congress to stop this bill simply because we can't afford to pay for it," Josten said. Some health-insurance companies contributed to the ad campaign, he said.

[earcandle]

6. Stop it for whatever reason you want. But stop it. It isn't health care reform without a robust

public option anyway, so who cares what these guys do? 

[TomCADem]

8. So, You Endorse The Chamber Taking Advantage of the Citizens United Decision?

...and threatening Democrats on the fence with a million dollar ad campaign against them?

[earcandle]

12. They are all on the same side with the same goal. To undermine our democracy and throw the country

into civil war like we do to every third world country we want
the resources of...

lower our wages, destroy our standard education so nothing
holds us together.

its pitiful and makes me both angry and sad. 

i am watching my great nation fall apart.

its like watching a parent become an alcoholic who doesn't
feed its kids, nor clean its house,
nor send them to school.  its like being in a country where
the father likes to gamble and the
mother is compliant to whatever the father says, and the
children have to figure it out on their own.

its really terrible not to be in a country that really cares
about its people.
especially a people who work so hard and watch their tax
dollars go out the door to genocide others
rather than to feed and educate its own.

the titles and names are meaningless to me. the sides are
meaningless to me. 
you either care about people or you care what they think.  you
cannot do both.
this whole endeavor is about spinning the minds of thinking
Americans and
pretending to care to the rest of those that don't think. 

[whathappened]

7. this is where

all the problems lie , all these back room meeting screewing with peoples lifes , get there asses out in front of the buldings and tell us what they are doing , make them declose where the money is running in thru all the cracks , i'm tired of all this chit , obama promissed more open gov , where is it , fook all of them

[alp227]

3. Yep, money moves politics.

The Citizens United v. FEC case makes things all the much worse. Politicians these days represent their lobbyists more than their constituents. :(

[harun]

4. Good post.

[Imajika]

9. So wait...

"An alliance of groups supporting the health care plan, which works closely with the White House and Democratic leaders, had been spending far less and focusing on fewer districts. But after pharmaceutical companies made a $12 million investment for a final advertising push, spending by both sides for the first time is now nearly the same."

...big Pharma is on our side?

Wonder how much those companies stand to benefit from this?

[TomCADem]

10. Most Spending Supporting HCR Came At The Start, Now Most Money Is Going Against...

...and the Chamber of Commerce is leading the charge with funding from health insurers.

[No Elephants]

14. Odd. Coakley got the Big Health money in Massachusetts, not Scott Brown.

That was recently.

Besides, I have no clue what Big Health saw in the beginning that was worth their money that they don't see now. The Senate bill was even better for them than the bill they drafted.

[TomCADem]

15. Think Again - WaPo - "[C]hamber spent $1 million on ads to help Republican Scott Brown"

Don't buy into Scott Brown's pick up truck talking points. As this article today notes, Scott Brown shows the effectiveness of the Chamber simply pouring money into a race, and mobilizing "volunteers" to impact a race:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031602040.html?hpid=topnews

Chamber officials declined to identify which lawmakers they are likely to target in November and said they are considering whether to weigh in on a limited number of primaries.

One early example of its influence came in January, when the chamber spent $1 million on ads to help Republican Scott Brown win a hotly contested special election for the U.S. Senate in Democratic-leaning Massachusetts. The group praised Brown as a candidate who "empowers business, not politicians" and hailed his Jan. 19 victory.

Brown was initially scheduled to be sworn in Feb. 11, but the group joined GOP leaders in pushing the date a week earlier. The change allowed Brown to take office just in time to cast a decisive vote against Craig Becker, a pro-union nominee to the National Labor Relations Board whom the chamber strongly opposed.

The group's heightened presence in the elections "is a real wake-up call for those of us on the other side," said Mike Gehrke, spokesman for Change to Win, a coalition of five major labor unions. "They're going to be bigger, they're going to be more aggressive and they're going to use tactics that progressives and Democrats have not seen a group like the chamber use before."

[No Elephants]

13. Remember the drug company lobbyist who got fired aftter Coakley LOST?

[2Design]

11. they could have paid for health care with the amount of money wasted

the advertisers and ad places and all who are part of propaganda are happy

[toopers]

16. What did anyone expect . . .

after the way the votes were bought in the Senate. The last person to vote "yes" will be the wealthiest. If they were really smart, a block of 10 or so representatives would get together and require both parties to bid on their votes.

[xsquid]

17. They are all fricken corrupt nt

[Thor_MN]

18. Time to start taxing all lobbying efforts at 60%

If Corporations are going to buy influence, make them pay through the nose for it.