Who Owns our Government, by Industry

[paparush]

$$ spent on lobbying, 1998 - 2010

Industry	                       Total
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products	       $1,956,898,643
Insurance	                       $1,427,862,637
Electric Utilities	               $1,345,479,505
Computers/Internet	               $1,080,849,699
Business Associations	               $1,068,462,638
Oil & Gas	                       $1,003,530,221
Education	                         $916,703,543
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing	 $875,229,711
Hospitals/Nursing Homes	                 $847,968,184
Real Estate	                         $829,993,587
Health Professionals	                 $761,595,958
Securities & Investment	                 $760,205,758
TV/Movies/Music	                         $755,069,734
Civil Servants/Public Officials	         $724,711,476
Air Transport	                         $715,990,983
Misc Issues	                         $645,148,729
Automotive	                         $599,158,576
Telephone Utilities	                 $597,709,366
Telecom Services & Equipment	         $574,579,915
Defense Aerospace	                 $504,475,101

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?indexType=i

[marmar]

1. I'm surprise Defense/Aerospace ranked so low......

..... but then again, they already are the shadow government.

[yella_dawg]

5. Not really suprising.

The military is in their camp already. No need to waste money when the fix is permanent anyway.

[paparush]

10. Exactly. The Pentagon IS a giant lobby in and of itself.

[enid602]

2. pharma

It's no wonder that Medicare's proposed ability to negotiate prices with big pharma was somehow missing from the final Health Care Reform.

[paparush]

3. Yes. $2 Billion dollars buys a lot of loyalty.

[blindpig]

4. Very telling

Pharma, insurance, oil, they have made some killer investments.

Kill Capitalism

[kentuck]

6. And they probably deduct every penny.."

as a business expense?

[RKP5637]

7. Bribery at its best IMO! n/t

[Ernesto]

8. works for me nt

[RKP5637]

9. I'm really at a loss to figure how much of this will be ever turned around. Money

talks and controls power. And so many in this nation are easily led around by propaganda and misinformation. We could easily vote them all out of office, but I just can't see enough Americans getting on the same page to get it accomplished. It's like a growing cancer unchecked. Maybe when the country completely hits the skids many might wake up, but IMO DU is the exception.

I do find it impressive Moveon.org now has about 5 million members. Maybe groups like DU, Moveon.org, etc. can slowly turn it around as more people start to wake up.

Maybe when the teabagger seniors go to get their prescriptions filled and they find they are no longer covered they'll wake up.

Main problem in this country is everyone wants to rip the other person apart, and bigotry and selfishness rule for many.