Abstract

No Pig Left Behind

The article criticizes the Medicare and energy bills, which recently came before the U.S. Congress. The corruptions of Washington are hidden in plain sight. It's no secret that there's a pay-to-play ethos that links legislators, contributors and lobbyists, and results in legislation more attuned to corporate interests than the public's. With the Medicare legislation, the White House and the Republican leaders of Congress (aided by two Senate Democrats, Max Baucus and John Breaux) produced a measure that grants seniors a spotty prescription drug benefit while rewarding two of the GOP's most generous supporters: the pharmaceutical industry and the health insurance industry. Yet once in a while the hogs of Washington outdo themselves--as they have done in the writing of the Medicare and energy bills. The energy bill went even further in terms of rewarding patrons. It would have doled out billions in tax breaks--or corporate welfare--to traditional energy companies, dwarfing the amounts reserved for renewable energy and energy efficiency. The Medicare bill, with the support of a small but decisive number of Senate Democrats and the backing of AARP, passed; the energy bill failed by two votes in the Senate, though Republicans will probably try to resurrect it when senators return to Washington in January. But both pieces of legislation tell the same ugly story. In the Washington of George W. Bush, Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, industry--that is, corporate patrons--comes first. And too many Democrats are accomplices.