Obamacare hooked the insurance industry on
the federal honeypot, while punishing them with financially untenable
regulations. This is how crony capitalism goes nuclear. Political
contributions from the industry leaders went up 26% in the last election.
We are talking big money.
Hillary Clinton got almost a million dollars
in campaign contributions from the insurance sector. Donald Trump got
less than $20,000.
The insurance industry is number two (after Wall St.) in political
contributions. In 2016 they spent one
hundred and fifty million dollars on lobbying, and employed 870
lobbyists. Democrats in Congress received 18 million in campaign
contributions and Republicans received
30 million. The drugcompanies,
counted separately, donated 30 million to candidates, slightly more going to
Republicans.
Insurers also spent 60 million dollars
on the seven sets of gubernatorial races in 2016 .
Newsweek reports that
13 Republican senators, including McConnell, on average
received $214,000 in contributions from health insurance and pharmaceutical
companies from November 2010 to November 2016, money and politics watchdog
MapLight found by searching campaign finance reports.
McConnell alone received $433,000 from
insurance and drug companies between 2010 and 2016.
According to Opensecrets.org
Over the course of Ryan’s career in Congress, insurance has
been the top industry (after retired people) contributing to his campaigns,
with $895,928
in contributions since he first campaigned for his House seat,
according to OpenSecrets.org data.
The Health
Professionals and Pharmaceutical industries
follow close behind as his fourth and seventh most supportive industries,
contributing $626,249 and $350,282, respectively, since 2000.
Eight of Paul
Ryan’s top twenty contributors are insurance companies, drug companies and
the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
That pretty much explains everything, doesn’t it?
Karin McQuillan is a retired Peace Corps Volunteer,
clinical social worker and psychotherapist, and author. She is a frequent
American Thinker contributor.
