Orrin the drug maker's friend
Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, patron saint of the pill and supplement industries, is Exhibit A that new federal campaign-finance laws leave loopholes for special interests to funnel huge amounts of money to congressional supporters.The Washington Times reports that pharmaceutical companies secretly poured money into Hatch's Utah Families Foundation. According to the Washington Times:
Though Congress boasts that it is more transparent after passing new disclosure rules, Americans have had no way of knowing about the drugmakers' largesse to the charity, Utah Families Foundation. No way, that is, until a normally confidential tax filing was mistakenly released by the Internal Revenue Service to a nonprofit database last year.
The $173,000 in donations to Hatch's charity were made at the same time that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America was paying Hatch's son Scott Hatch as its lobbyist.
Hatch's foundation also has failed to file its required annual reports with the state of Utah since its creation nearly a decade ago.
2 Comments:
You know what is funny also? Look at the bills Senator Hatch has sponsored so far this year!
All land swap bills. Is that normal?
And how about Uncle Orrin's "help" with Health Insurance for all Americans. Check into his "Healthcare Equalization Amendment" of 2001. He and Senator Kyl of Arizona tacked one of nearly 1400 amendments onto a U.S. Navy appropriations bill for submarine construction just minutes before it went to the Senate floor for final vote. That way, it never saw the chance for debate or inspection by other Senators before the vote was taken.
This amendment allowed insurance companies to jack premiums sky high for anyone suffering from old age or chronic medical conditions. It did wonders for the insurance companies' bottom lines -- jacked profits up wonderfully.
But it drove many Americans -- including my daughter, a police officer who had to take medical retirement because of a job related condition -- into bankruptcy. She had opened a small business and then couldn't afford insurance to keep herself healthy enough to run the store.
Hatch is a pathetic example of the corruption that infests our legislature both at the state and Federal levels -- especially on the Republican side of the aisle.
Post a Comment
<< Home