Sins of the Past

[Care4all]

sins of the past that SHOULD NOT be forgotten!

the article is very, very long....but an enlightening read on how things really work in DC, please go to the link...read it and weep....it was a sad state of affairs

Abramoff's influence-peddling scheme has already figured prominently in many mid-term election campaigns. Democrats accuse Republicans and their lobbyist allies of being motivated by greed. Ney, who recently checked himself into an alcohol rehabilitation clinic, blames the bottle. There's no shortage of either greed or booze in Washington, but the root cause is much deeper. After Republicans took the House in 1994, and especially since they gained the White House in 2000, DeLay and others in the GOP leadership built a vast political machine operating largely outside the scrutiny of campaign-finance laws. The coterie of lobbyists surrounding Abramoff was at the heart of that system. The role of these lobbyists was not just to enrich themselves or to attract large sums from corporate America to Republican campaign coffers---although they certainly did both those things. The lobbyists were also an essential component of a governing strategy the leadership used to get laws passed.

There's perhaps no better example of this than Medicare. The Medicare prescription-drug bill, passed in late 2003 after a bitter partisan struggle, represented the program's biggest expansion since it began more than 40 years ago. But with its enormous expense and inadequate coverage, it has proved to be a disaster. Twenty percent of enrollees have higher drug costs than they did before signing up. In the next three months, an estimated three and a half to seven million people will hit the notorious "donut hole," in which coverage stops until their drug spending reaches $5,100. "We ended up with a program that undermines Medicare and costs way too much for a program with major gaps in coverage," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future Campaign for America's Future (CAF) is an American political organization founded by a group of progressive leaders. Its main issues of concern include the environment, energy independence, health care reform, Social Security, education, and congressional accountability. and a founder of Americans United, a coalition of consumer and labor groups demanding that Congress fix the plan.

It's well known that in his crusade to pass the bill, DeLay drew on more than 800 pharmaceutical-industry lobbyists, millions of dollars in campaign contributions, and the efforts of numerous business and healthcare groups. But this grossly flawed legislation could never have passed without the help of the same players who were central to Abramoff's lobbying operation: Tony Rudy and Ed Buckham. Using a nest of nonprofits flush with corporate cash, the discredited lobbyists played a vital, albeit hidden, role in whittling down congressional opposition to the bill for more than a year before the final vote. In particular, Alexander Strategy made use of three senior nonprofit groups the United Seniors Association, the Seniors Coalition and 60 Plus--and a Christian evangelical group, America 21, which were all funded heavily by the pharmaceutical industry. This is the story of how this shadowy network helped saddle the American public with the Medicare drug bill--the biggest, most important piece of policy in which the dubious talents of Abramoffs acolytes were brought to bear.

Poison pill: how Abramoff's cronies sold the Medicare drug bill. - Free Online Library