Normally, when I’ve been gone a few days, I try not to worry too much about catch up. But this little tidbit from the Washington Post is worth sharing:

On June 19, Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas made clear that he and a group of other
conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs were increasingly unhappy with the
direction that health-care legislation was taking in the House.

“The
committees’ draft falls short,” the former pharmacy owner said in a statement
that day, citing, among other things, provisions that major health-care
companies also strongly oppose.

Five days later, Ross was the guest of
honor at a special “health-care industry reception,” one of at least seven
fundraisers for the Arkansas lawmaker held by health-care companies or their
lobbyists this year, according to publicly available invitations.

And there you have it folks. Mike Ross was fighting healthcare reform that could benefit an enormous amount of people, including his own constituents, for the sake of his base-the health insurance industry lining his campaign pockets. This may not be illegal, but it sure smells like corruption. This is just one more example of why real campaign finance reform is needed, taking the big money interests out of politics and putting the power in the hands of small donors. If we can get that kind of system in place, Ross can either come back over from the darkside and start representing his constituents again or he could be replaced in a primary by someone who will.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 10:27 am and is filed under Mike Ross, campaign finance reform, corruption, healthcare reform, money in politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.