Chuck Grassley-- The Nexus Between Health Care Reform And Campaign Finance Reform

Barney Frank is one of the most powerful and influential Democrats in Congress. He was first elected to the House in 1980. Lobbyists and CEOs from the Medical-Industrial Complex would love to have him take their side sometimes instead always sticking up for working families. They've given him $168,184 since 1980-- approximately $5,600 a year. It hasn't done them any good at all. Frank has pledged to support the public option and to oppose any watered down bill pushed by Big Insurance and their shills in the Senate Finance Committee to thwart the will of American families who want real reform.

Shills in the Senate Finance Committee? Well, we've been talking a lot at DWT about the committee's chairman, Max Baucus (D-MT), and about a very corrupt and reactionary member of the Finance Committee's health care subcommittee, Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), known for her unswerving devotion to anyone who writes her a big enough check (as the Big Insurance companies have).

But we haven't spent nearly enough time focusing on a far worse member of the Senate and the Senate Finance Committee than either Baucus or Lincoln. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is widely viewed as Baucus' partner in crime when it comes to molding health care reform into just what Big Insurance would like it to be. Since first being elected to Congress on the same day as Barney Frank, the Medical Industrial Complex has given him $1,968,929 in legalized bribes-- plus another $907,724 from Big Insurance.

Grassley has a tough re-election battle coming next year-- from an increasingly deranged Iowa Republican Party which has lost its moorings and is now a shrinking, hystetical, xenophobic and racist, birther club threatening to back a primary opponent against Grassley and from a general electorate that has turned bluer and bluer. Grassley is counting on lobbyists and CEOs from the Medical-Industrial Complex and from Insurance companies to finance these challenges to his continued career. And there is every indication that they are stepping up to the plate. Remember I mentioned that the Medical industries had given Barney Frank $168,184 since 1980. That's approximately what they've given Grassley since April (actually, that doesn't count the massive inflows of bribes to him in July, just April, May and June-- just when the Finance Committee was trying to come up with a "bipartisan" plan to kill health care reform). Paul Blumenthal at the Sunlight Foundation has the whole sordid story.

As the debate over health care reform legislation has heated up over the spring and summer months, the Senate Finance Committee has found itself at the center of the debate. Leading this debate has been the duo of Max Baucus, committee chair, and Chuck Grassley, committee ranking member. According to campaign finance records filed with the FEC, the duo raised $219,000 from health and insurance political action committees (PACs) from April to June of this year.

The majority of that money was raised by Sen. Grassley, who is up for reelection in 2010 and could face a Republican primary battle. During the height of the debate over health care, Grassley pulled in $165,100 from health and insurance PACs. At the same time, Grassley’s language turned from the cautious but open words about reform in 2008 to the abrasive Twitter rants of 2009.

Earlier in the year, Grassley teamed with Baucus to pass an extension of benefits in the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). Now, the ranking Republican, while involved in bipartisan talks over a health reform bill, has become a forceful voice in opposition to all plans that have already passed out of other congressional committees and has taken to Twitter to attack President Obama and his call to get a bill completed sooner rather than later.

Max Baucus, chair of the Finance Committee, to the chagrin of congressional Democrats has heeded Grassley’s plea to slow down the health reform process. The Finance Committee is currently the only congressional committee still debating a bill. This is after holding ten hearings on health care reform in 2008 in preparation for the 2009 debate and holding eight hearings this year. Baucus, despite a pledge to not take health care PAC money after June 1 was still able to raise $55,000 from health care PACs in April and May alone. This is without being up for reelection until 2014.
The majority of the money to the two senators comes from health professionals and pharmaceutical companies. The biggest contributors include Aetna, American Academy of Family Physicians, National Health Underwriters and Healthsouth Corporation.

As the committee continues to debate into the fall, we’ll have to wait and see if the PAC contribution continue to pour in. The next reporting date is October 15. By then, a compromise may have already been crafted or the bipartisan talks could have fallen apart.

Petrified of a challenge from radical right extremists back home, Grassley has moved further and further right over the last year. Once considered a mainstream conservative who could usually be counted on to put America first and not his party's crazy power struggles and obstructionist strategies, he was widely expected to join other mainstream conservatives like his old friends Dick Lugar (R-IN) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in voting to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Instead he ran for the microphones to pledge allegiance to a bizarre Rush Limbaugh/Ann Coulter/Glenn Beck brand of Republicanism. His last term is widely viewed in Iowa as an almost complete failure and if the Democrats field a strong challenger in 2010, it's by no means a guarantee that Grassley will get another term.

Dishonest and corrupt members of Congress like Grassley can be defeated once voters realize just how completely the power elites and corporations have our electoral system gamed. Until real campaign finance reform is passed-- reform that stops special interests from spending millions to buy the votes of members of Congress (as they've clearly done with Grassley, Baucus and Lincoln)-- we are doomed to fighting unwinnable battles against the (well-financed) status quo. The Fair Elections Now Act is making it's way through Congress. It has been co-sponsored by progressives Donna Edwards (D-MD), Alan Grayson (D-FL), Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), George Miller (D-CA), Eric Massa (D-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Paul Hodes (D-NH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Phil Hare (D-IL), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Steven Rothman (D-NJ), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Ann Eshoo (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO), Michael Honda (D-CA), Jesse Jackson (D-IL), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Harry Teague (D-NM), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Steve Kagen (D-WI), Bob Filner (D-CA), Michael Capuano (D-MA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Jim Moran (D-VA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Charlie Rangel (D-NY), John Conyers (D-MI), every single member of the Connecticut congressional delegation except arch-corruptionist Joe Lieberman; as well as moderate and conservative Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Harry Teague (D-NM), Joe Sestak (D-PA), Michael Arcuri (Blue Dog-NY), Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Ron Kind (D-WI), David Wu (D-OR), Steve Israel (D-NY), Betsy Markey (D-CO), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Adam Smith (D-WA), Dan Maffei (D-NY), Kathy Dahlkemper (Blue Dog-PA), Tom Perriello (D-VA), Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN), Michael Doyle (D-PA), Bill Foster (D-IL), Solomon Ortiz (D-TX), Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), and Gene Green (D-TX). And there are even two-and-a-half Republicans on board-- Walter Jones (R-NC), Arlen Specter (R/D-PA), and Todd Platts (R-PA). If your rep or senator isn't on the list, you can whip up some support from him or her here. It goes to the heart of every issue, from health care to equitable financial and tax policies. Needless to say, Grassley, Baucus and Lincoln are all hysterical opponents of campaign finance reform.