Re: RE: Opposition Demands Lobbyist Investigation
FiveParadox said:
I am surprised to see, from what the statistics in this thread seem to imply, that the membership thinks that lobbying is a good thing (at least in terms of the current Government, lol). I wonder if the same would be true if this question had been asked during the 38th Parliament, with the previous Government of Canada.
These polls only show who politically makes up these message forums. The one thing that I do find impressive with right wing supporters is how well they are able to mobilize themselves to push their politics. People who tend to have moderate views seem to suffer from a kind of apathy in which they don’t expect the status quo to be in any sort of real jeopardy to lend much voice.
I have watched the erosion of the American model and it still amazes me how it happened. How it happened to what was such a strong player in the world.
Now states can’t even afford the after school programs they use to offer to their kids, their reputation is in the gutter, they’re billions of dollars in debt owned by the Japanese and Chinese because of wars and permanent taxes which mostly benefit the wealthy, and corporate nepotism. Their media now has such low journalistic integrity having helped sell the war in Iraq to the public (and it never stops from there), their Civil Liberties are falling to the wayside, they torture people?! and it goes on and on.
I watched it happen to Americans and they would always tell me, all the way down, “It can’t happen here. No, not here in America.”
Everyone should look at what lobbyist groups do in the United States. I’ll give an example.
For instance, I really like how the FDA had experts from the same drug companies who put out the dangerous drug to say how their pain killer Viox, which is killing people by causing heart attacks should not be pulled off the shelves. Rather, just put a little black box that says “it might give you a heart attack.”
Voila, now it becomes harder for victims to legally sue despite releasing such a dangerous drug into the market which kills people simply for pain releif.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/05/health/main671915.shtml
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13130-1921288,00.html
“Bert Hazlett, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, upgraded Merck to a buy from a neutral because he believes Vioxx will return to the market for use in a limited population.
And while Vioxx sales my be relatively small, he predicted the resurrection of the drug may help limit the company's legal liability. Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Merck over Vioxx and some have estimated the company's liability could go to $30 billion.
"I wouldn't want to be a plaintiff's lawyer right now," said Hazlett.
While the warning could further dampen Celebrex sales, analysts don't think it will be extreme.”
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/drugs/2005-04-25-drug-lobby-cover_x.htm
“Since 1998, drug companies have spent $758 million on lobbying — more than any other industry, according to government records analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity, a watchdog group. In Washington, the industry has 1,274 lobbyists — more than two for every member of Congress.
"They are powerful," says Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "You can hardly swing a cat by the tail in that town without hitting a pharmaceutical lobbyist."
Over the years those lobbyists have been very successful, demonstrating that the industry knows politics as well as it knows chemistry. Drug companies won coverage for prescription drugs under Medicare in 2003 while blocking the government from negotiating prices downward. They have so far kept out imports of cheaper medicines from Canada and other countries. And they have protected a system that uses company fees to speed the drug-approval process.”
...
Lobbying the government is a way to get special favour. More often than not, in the interest of corporations, as opposed the interest of the pubic good. The last thing we need is our politicians making decisions by way of corporation influence. Corporations are all about making money, regardless of who benefits or not.
