President Obama Urges Every Member Of Congress To Stand Against Deceptive Insurance Lobby On Health

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/12179

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on October 18, 2009 - 2:26pm
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In his weekly radio address to the nation over the weekend, President Obama blasted the health insurance political lobby for using its power to attack real healthcare reform.

: "The insurance industry is rolling out the big guns and breaking open their massive war chest – to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo. They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They’re flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they’re funding studies designed to mislead the American people. It’s smoke and mirrors. It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, "Take one of these, and call us in a decade." Well, not this time.

The President urged every member of Congress to stand against the insurance lobby's power play.

: "To stand against the power plays and political ploys – and to stand up on behalf the American people who sent us to Washington to do their business.

[liberal N proud]

1. Mr. President...

It's too LATE!

[AndyA]

2. The real problem here is the lobbyists access to Congressional members.

Why do we allow a system that encourages Congress to compromise their ethics and oath of office?

They are charged with looking out for what's best for their constituents, yet major corporations, flush with cash from abusing the American people for decades, have better access to members of Congress than their own voters.

We need health care reform.

We need lobbying reform.

We need accountability and standards must be put in place so that members of Congress who've taken in millions in campaign donations from a particular industry can't chair committees making decisions about the future of that industry. This is a major conflict of interest, and it absolutely should not be permitted under any circumstance.

The problem, of course, is finding someone in Congress who doesn't have a conflict of interest when it comes to major industries and their campaign donations, which only serves to emphasize the problem.

We need to deal with the lobbyists.