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Sun 20 Jul, 2003 06:56 am
WASHINGTON - You don't need a scorecard to figure out how lawmakers vote on major issues. You just need to tabulate their campaign donations.
The Associated Press looked at six measures in the House ?- medical malpractice, class action lawsuits, overhauling bankruptcy laws, the energy bill, gun manufacturer lawsuits and overtime pay ?- and compared lawmakers' votes with the financial backing they received from interest groups supporting or opposing the legislation. The House passed five of the six bills and defeated an amendment that would have stopped the Bush administration from rewriting the rules for overtime pay.
In the vast majority of cases, the biggest recipients of interest group money voted the way their donors wanted, according to the AP's computer-assisted analysis of campaign finance data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Groups that outspent opponents got the bills they wanted in five of the six cases examined by the AP.
Common knowledge to anyone wishing to know. And it crosses party lines.
So what else is new? Sadly, with most politicians, their main goal is getting reelected. Greater campaign funding often gives one candidate the edge over the rest of the pack. Then it's payback time.
There has to be a better way!
We have the best congress that money can buy. Not one cheap suit in the bunch.
Clothes make the politician.
Stumble It!
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