So when we were watching the documentary Sicko (directed by Michael Moore) I had a thought (oh great). I wanted to know how much money the healthcare industry contributes to Congress annually. I also thought it would be interesting to compare the differences in off-year elections to the Presidential election years. With a little research I came across a great website that had the information I wanted to know.
The Opensecrets.org website has charts and graphs that help explain how much money is contributed to political parties yearly. Since we are studying healthcare the following link will take you to the health care portion of the website. It is very interesting to see just how much money the health care industries contribute to politicians and parties.
In the right hand column there is a dropdown box that will let you explore other sectors such as energy, defense, and so forth. There is a wealth of information on this website that will help you better understand not only politics but the influence that both public and private industry has on elections, political parties, and recipients. One cannot underestimate the influence of lobbyists in today's government either.
Pay close attention in particular to the charts on contribution trends and party split found here. Very interesting to look at election years and contributions and how they seem to go up. Also look at who receives more of the contributions-Republicans and Democrats. Can you figure out why?
There are a lot of things that we don't know about politics. I never knew that the long term contributions are constantly going up. I liked this assignment it really opened my eyes on this subject.
ReplyDeleteI think this topic is interesting. I guess I never really paid attention to where all these candidates got their money. I never would have guessed one industry to contribute that much money to one election.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting topic Mr. Reints......I really didn't know some of those politics you talked about but some I did. its amazing on how much you learn just by reading blogs......especially yours.
ReplyDeleteI think that this was a good topic because I'm learning more than I know about politics. By reading up on all this I am now seeing how much money they actually make and how much is raised. I enjoyed this assignment it helped me learn a lot more about politics
ReplyDeleteA LOT of money goes to lobbying. I feel this makes dirty politics. If the Health service can give away so much money can others do the same and get away with it.
ReplyDeleteI found this topic interesting. I found out how much money people are given during there campaign and how much lobbyist are paying each year to influence peoples decisions
ReplyDeleteThis assignment was not one of my favorite things that we have learned about but it was interesting. I didn't know that the people that ran for things in their home states got there own money from the health companies to spend on campaigning. This was an interesting subject, but not my favorite.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is very interesting because it gives you information that you do not here of often. By studying the graphs, you can realize how much the healthcare industry contributes to politics. This subject shows really well how spending is distributed throughout different areas
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how the healthcare industry can tell people that they don't have enough money. They say they are short on cash yet they spend millions of dollars on lobbying.
ReplyDeleteI like the questions your blogs have raised. The link you shared shows how big of a hand the healthcare industry has in our government and how big of an influence they have on our states people in government. I looked further into it and there are a lot of other industries that pay senators and representatives but none come close to the amount that healthcare companies spend.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting, angering topic. Why should companies that have money be able to fix our government? It doesn't make any sense. I think that our government should some how regulate the amount of money each politician should be able to have.
ReplyDeleteI don't get why some of the politics of the same like political party get different amount of how much they get paid. I don't like how the health care industries put money into politics.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about where candidates get their money to advertise. I also thought it was really shocking to see how much money healthcare contributes to political parties. I also agree lobbyists play a big part in government.
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