Kratovil’s Special Interest Pals Want to Throw Seniors Under the Bus
August 20, 2009 by Cato
Filed under Campaign Finance, Healthcare, Lobbying, Maryland, Maryland Politics
You know Frank Kratovil. He’s the “moderate” Democrat. He’s the “Blue Dog”. Frank loves to hug trees. Frank also attacked his opponent in last year’s election because Andy Harris was the beneficiary of grassroots money from groups like The Club for Growth.
What Frank Kratovil doesn’t want you to know is that he was a tool of left wing special interests last year and now appears to be going to the highest bidder. Case in point – Big Pharma.
You’ve probably seen the commercials; asking you to call Kratovil and thank him for “saving children’s health care”. Guess who paid for those ads. PhRMA, the lobby for Big Pharma.
Listen to President Barack Obama brag about the pharmaceutical industry supporting ObamaCare. Now ask yourself why. It’s simple, the Obama administration made a deal with Big Pharma to keep their share of cost reductions capped at $80 billion.
How did they do that? Big Pharma and Obama agreed to throw Grandma under the bus. Under Obama’s agreement with Big Pharma, Grandma can no longer order her prescriptions from Canada. Big Pharma also won’t be subject to price controls for certain drugs under Medicare Part D (I’m opposed to price controls, but that’s another post).
Big Pharma loves Frank Kratovil. We have to wonder if Frank will be voting to hammer our seniors.
H/T – Del. Mike Smigiel
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Cato provides the laugh of the week, saying, “Andy Harris was the beneficiary of grassroots (sic) money from groups like The Club for Growth.”
The Club for Growth was founded and is run by ultra-rich, far-right wingnuts. The Club has been aptly described as the economic-royalist branch of the Republican Party. It is the secular church of supply-side fundamentalism; it promotes tax cuts and nothing but tax cuts, especially for the rich. National Republican figures have referred to them as, inter alia, the “The Club for Greed.”
To get an idea of the kind of people the Club promotes, note that SC Governor Mark Sanford, he of Argentinian fame, has had one of the warmest relationships with the Club of any national politician.
The leader of the Club is former Congressman Chocola who was one of the wealthiest Members of Congress with a net worth of almost $15 million.
That’s grassroots for ya.
Thanks, Cato, for the providing everyone with a great belly laugh.
ROTFLMAO
I’m glad you enjoyed the laugh Inspector. The laugh appears to be on you. Personally, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many rhetorical / logical fallacies in such a small space. Straw men, ad hominem, begging the question … Your education obviously didn’t include any Aristotle. In addition, you make several factual errors.
Unfortunately, I think you expect to be taken seriously. So, here goes …
The Club for Growth was (I can’t speak to now) funded primarily by low dollar contributions from individuals, unlike such stellar left wing groups as MoveOn.
They supported Sanford. So what? I supported him, as did many other conservatives. The man had (has?) obvious character flaws. I no longer support him, nor do most conservatives. That’s one difference between conservatives and leftists. An official gets caught with their hand in the cooking jar (or somewhere else) and we chuck him. We believe in forgiveness. That doesn’t mean that their isn’t punishment.
Same happens on the left, and they (perhaps you) make excuses for him. Any sin is OK, except deviating from statist orthodoxy. One of the reasons for that is a denial of sin by most on the left. Their church is the state.
You claim that the CFG “promotes tax cuts and nothing but tax cuts, especially for the rich”. First of all, that isn’t true. CFG promotes low taxes, fiscal responsibility AND limited government. If you don’t understand that these are three separate, but (to a degree) inter-related issues, I’m sorry. There is nothing I can do for you except to suggest that you read a few books.
You also state that Chris Chocola is the president of CFG. That is true. However, I thought we were talking about 2008. Pat Toomey was the president of CFG from 2005 – 2009.
You also argue that because Chocola is wealthy, and because he is the president of the CFG, somehow that proves that CFG is not a grassroots organization. That is like arguing that Jay Rockefeller, Ted Kennedy, and Mark Warner (to name just a few) aren’t fit to be US Senators because they are wealthy. How about former US Senator John Danforth? Should he have been denied taking on the priesthood because he’s wealthy?
Get real! If you had argued that Chocola was funding the group wholly (or predominately) out of his own pocket, then you might have an argument. Oh wait! That’s George Soros and MoveOn.
Would you like to try again?