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With the summer recess about to end and Senate Democrats determined to push through health care reform without the help of GOPers, have you checked to see how much campaign cash your representatives have taken from health care interests?
Following the money is always an illuminating experience when it comes to Congress, as lawmakers tend to vote the way that campaign cash flows. (Check out this recent analysis from Maplight.org of the House vote on the climate bill to see what I mean.) This is because, to put it bluntly, lawmakers owe their jobs to these donors, since they must collect huge amounts of money to run successful election campaigns. While ordinary citizens may weigh in with phone calls, emails, and small contributions, these large donors tend to get their calls returned faster and their concerns listened to more carefully.
Overall, current members of the Senate have collected more than $129 million from health insurance, pharmaceutical, health professionals, hospitals and nursing homes since 1989, according to OpenSecrets.org. GOP Senators took an average of $1.5 million from these health care interests, Democrats, $1.2 million. (However, because Democrats are now a majority in the Senate, their take of the health care campaign cash pie represents 52 percent of the total.) To download a spreadsheet showing the amounts for every member of Congress, click here:
HealthSums_111th.xls (Note: If you do use this data, please be sure to Credit OpenSecrets.org.)
If you play around with the spreadsheet, you'll find some interesting patterns. For example, the top Senate recipients of health care cash by far are Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and John Kerry (D-MA), with $9 million and $8 million respectively--although these high amounts reflect money they collected for their failed presidential bids. Next on the list is Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), with $4.5 million, who recently switched parties and faces a tough reelection race this year. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), with $3.8 million, comes next. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who recently said health care reform should wait until the economy improves, ranks 11th, with $2.6 million.
Also, conservative House Democrats--members of the "Blue Dog" coalition--have been enjoying an influx of health care campaign cash at a greater rate than their colleagues, according to this analysis from OpenSecrets.org. The Blue Dogs' "stance on health care reform is more in line with that of health
insurers and pharmaceutical companies." They oppose a public health care plan unless insurance reforms are tried first.
What is overwhelmingly obvious, however, is how overwhelming the pile of health care cash is. Out of 535 members of Congress, only 18 took less than $50,000 from health care interests. That's real money to most Americans. And it helps provide context for how lawmakers make decisions about how to craft health care reform.
To check out other resources from the Sunlight Foundation in following the health care debate, check out my previous posts:
The Health Care Debate: How to Get the Facts Yourself
