There is a group of the financially elite that has applied major influence on Congress regarding the so called health care reform bill -- it is the Business Roundtable.There's a must read article by David DeGraw about the Business Roundtable.
Here is part of what David said:
The Business Roundtable is the most powerful activist organization in the United States. Their leaders regularly lobby members of Congress behind closed doors and often meet privately with the President and his administration. Any legislation that affects Roundtable members has almost zero possibility of passing without their support.For three major examples, look at healthcare and financial reform, along with the military budget.
The healthcare reform bill devolved into what amounts to an insurance industry bailout and was drastically altered by Roundtable lobbyists representing interests like WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson. Obama and Congress are trying to please the Roundtable with a bill that supports their interests. This led to the dropping of the public-option put forth in the House bill. However, when it came to finishing the bill, Roundtable members began to walk away from the process. That’s the real reason why the reform bill has stalled. Obama met with the Roundtable on February 24th, in hopes of getting healthcare reform back on track. After that meeting, he held a bipartisan healthcare meeting with members of Congress. - snip -
Shortly after Obama’s inauguration he held a meeting with Roundtable members at the St. Regis Hotel.
The president of the Business Roundtable is John J. Castellani. Throughout the first nine months of Obama’s presidency, Castellani met with him at the White House more than any other person, with the exception of Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue. If you look at the records of people who have spent the most time with Obama in the White House, other than these two, another frequent visitor is Edward Yingling, the president of the American Bankers Association.
These organizations - the Business Roundtable, Chamber of Commerce and the American Bankers Association - along with the Federal Reserve, a secretive quasi-government private institution, form the center of the Economic Elite’s power structure.
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As I said, this is a must read article for anyone wanting to "follow the money."
http://www.alternet.org/economy/145996/the_most_powerful_destructive_corporate_business_club_most_americans_have_never_heard_of?page=entire THE SENATE HCR BILL'S MAIN PURPOSES ARE TWO -- (1) TO GUARANTEE PROFITS FOR THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY AND (2) TO GIVE THEM EVEN MORE POWER AND INFLUENCE OVER FUTURE HEALTH CARE REFORM LEGISLATION. Once insurance is mandated by law, they will use their influence to make sure health care reform is never taken up again in any meaningful way. Nothing can or will be done to contain their power until the entire health care system collapses.
Most of us understand the need for true health care reform. This Senate bill is NOT IT.
Don't say later that you weren't warned.
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