Interest Groups and Politics

Interest Groups and Politics

As we approach the 2004 presidential election everyone is getting in line to throw their money into the Proverbial feeding trough that all politicians take from. Campaigns are made and broke depending on how much money they have to spend. Fundraising is one way for politicians to receive contributions from your typical everyday blue collar citizen, but where do the four and five figure contributions come from? They come from interest

groups and lobbyists. These are the people, companies, and organizations that control our government whether they admit it or not. Campaign are run by this money and their agendas are the ones that congress on both the state and national level. The best way to sum up how all this works is "You're one of 435 ants in the House, and unless you're on the right committee a lot of these people don't even return your phone calls."

-- Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.), on raising money from PAC directors ("Speaking Freely, 2nd Ed." by Larry Makinson (Center for Responsive Politics, 2003)).

Interest groups give what is called "soft money" to candidates; in return these candidates push the issues that the interest groups hold important. For instance, recently on 60 MINUTES they ran a special on the prescription drug companies and the government. It is shown that the United Sates pays double for medication what the rest of the world pays for the same thing. The reason this is occurring is due to the fact that these drug manufacturers are pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars in to these campaigns. Since 1999 certain legislators have received more then one and a half million dollars in campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies. President Bush personally has received half a million dollars. (60Minutes, CBS News). It is quite amazing that if you look at the top 100 overall donators in 2002 that seven of them are the largest drug manufactors in the world, and the are all heavy republican supporters. On the same side to this is the insurance companies. They also give large contributions to politicians. In 2002, companies such as Blue Cross / Blue Shield, AFLAC, and Cigna, were all huge contributors to the Republican Party. Since the late 80's republican have always been able to raise more soft money. In 2002 alone democrats raised 217 million dollars, while the republicans raised a whopping 442 million in soft money (opensecrets.org). It is no surprise that medical prices keep going up; insurance won't cover simple necessary surgeries. It's because the United States government has been in bed with these companies for years, and it will serve them no financial benefit to stop taking this money and looking out for the average American. It's nothing new to think that big business and government are in essence scratching each others backs. If this weren't the case then companies such as Philp Morris would have been shut down long ago. Cigarettes are the only item that the FDA has not made to have an ingredients label on it. Water has to have an ingredients label on it. It comes back to the fact that Philip Morris donated roughly four million dollars to both the Democrats and republicans in 2002. (opensecrets.org)

MADD or mothers against drunk driving is another interest group that uses it mass number and influence. The legal limit drunk in the state of Florida less the ten years ago was .10 today with the legislation and thanks to MADD, GLADD, and SADD it has been lowered to .08 bac. Some of these special interest groups do look out for the safety and well being of most, but these are organizations. There is a major difference between MADD and financial companies such as Saban Capital Group, with gave almost 10 million dollars to the democrats in 2002 (opensecrets.org).

Another issue that is making its way into Congress is the film industry. In 2002 the Shangri-La Entertainment company based out of Hawaii it donated seven million to the Democrats. Hawaii passed a deal in 2001 that Film Company that were will to do production in Hawaii would receive a tax cut. This is called Act 221. Along with Hollywood getting involved with the government, the Porn industry is also looking to grease the hands of politicians. There have been moves that make it easier to get access to porn. Congress passed a bill making libraries put filters on their computer to block porn, or have their funding cut. ("Who Pays for Free Speech" Mary Minow American Libraries Feb 2003 Vol 34 Issue 2) The Porn industry in a billion dollar a year business, it agreed to comply with congress on the library issue, but you can