Lobbying has become a general acceptance in the mainstream political realm as both Democrats and Republicans receive campaign contributions from a variety of industries, whether it’s oil, the weapons industry or even healthcare.
In 2008, both Presidential candidates received donations to their bids for the White House, however, then-Senator Barack Obama of Illinois received approximately more than $20 million from the healthcare industry, while Republican Senator from Arizona received less than $8 million, according to the
Raw Story.
Based on analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, which is a nonprofit and nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics, they found that health professionals donated $11.7 million to Obama’s campaign, while Health Services and HMOs gave $1.4 million to the President Obama. Hospitals, the pharmaceutical industry and health products provided between $2 million and $3.3 million to his 2008 campaign.
The White House did not provide comment on the research.
Dave Levinthal, the Center's Communications Director, said, “What it also means when you look at it just on its own merit is that Obama definitely has a relationship with the health sector. When you raise $20 million from one group, obviously they’ve curried some favor with you and you have a lot of people in that sector who support you. So to say that just because he out-raised McCain overall doesn’t mean anything in the context of the health sector might not necessarily be true.”
Historian, media critic and Obama delegate at the Democratic National Convention, Norman Solomon, said that the healthcare industry attempted to gain access into the administration to influence policymaking but added that they have been very successful, even with members of Congress.
“It’s getting worse every year. This story line is going to continue until the end of time until we change the way we pay for our political campaigns. It’s the system. Everyone’s stuck in it. Everyone gets kind of caught up in it.”
Daily Kos is noting that this recent research released proves that Obama did not receive campaign contributions from small, personal donors. The publication added that Obama is not immune to outside influence. They said, according to
The Hill, that he was secretly accepting money from corporate lobbyists such as K Street network and Verizon, “Maybe that explains Obama's dramatic FLIP FLOP on FISA.”
