Unethical contributions lead to corrupt practices
Just before Christmas, 2005, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert pulled off a backroom legislative deal to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits-- the language was slipped into a Defense Department appropriations bill at the last minute without the approval of members of the House-Senate conference committee who were meeting on the bill. Frist has received over $485,000 in campaign contributions from the health care industry over his congressional career; Hastert has received over $1,360,000.
It is not uncommon for businesses to financially contribute to incumbents, once they are in office, and then lobby them for favors. The contributor first determines who in congress are in the committees that regulate their business, or who has established his partisanship in favor of their industry. Then they write checks to those incumbents, most of the
time lawfully in our present electoral system. They then turn around and pay lobbyists to influence those incumbents to act and vote in favor of that particular business.
This system of unethical behavior encourages the type of backroom legislative deals that the two congressional "leaders" exhibited. It also encourages the astronomical re-election success rate that incumbents in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate enjoy. We must vote out all irresponsible incumbents who submit to this corrupt system, and vote in public servants who have the interest of the nation at heart!
Source: Common Dreams, Political Moneyline, Political Moneyline
