Why Democrats are afraid of the trial lawyers
Last Wednesday Howard Dean let out a statement that President Obama and the Democratic political machine really do not want you to know. Mr. Dean was at a town hall meeting when he said, "The reason tort reform is not in the [health care] bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on. And that’s the plain and simple truth." That kind of honesty in a politician shocked many observers who know why Democrats don't want to take on the trial lawyers.
As forthright as this statement is, Mr. Dean still left us with some ambiguity as to why the Democrats are afraid of making an enemy of the trial lawyers. But the answer can be found easily enough. The most obvious reason is that a large majority of politicians are lawyers like John Edwards who became a millionaire from medical malpractice law suits. Another good resource is OpenSecrets.org. If you follow the link, you will see a chart listing the campaign contributions made to Congress by lawyers and law firms since 1990. The chart shows you how much they contributed, which party they contributed to, and their ranking compared to others industries and political groups. I have created a smaller table below to illustrate just what it is that the Democrats are afraid of:
Date
Ranking Among
Industry Groups
Total
Contributions
% Donated to
Democrats
Donated to
Republicans
2010*
1
$25,004,681
81%
18%
2008*
2
$233,912,817
76%
23%
2006*
2
$120,671,997
71%
28%
So now you know why the Democrats do not what to make an enemy of the trial lawyers. Democrats are the party of the trial lawyer and they want to preserve government of the lawyer, by the lawyer and for the lawyer. After all the membership fees to those exclusive golf resorts are very expensive.
- Thomas Paine 2
*Notes from OpenSecrets.org on the data
†These numbers show how the industry ranks in total campaign giving as compared to more than 80 other industries. Rankings are shown only for industries (such as the Automotive industry) -- not for widely encompassing "sectors" (such as Transportation) or more detailed "categories" (like car dealers).
*These figures do not include donations of "Levin" funds to state and local party committees. Levin funds were created by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.
METHODOLOGY: The numbers on this page are based on contributions of $200 or more from PACs and individuals to federal candidates and from PAC, soft money and individual donors to political parties, as reported to the Federal Election Commission. While election cycles are shown in charts as 1996, 1998, 2000 etc. they actually represent two-year periods. For example, the 2002 election cycle runs from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2002
Data for the current election cycle were released by the Federal Election Commission on Sunday, August 23, 2009.
NOTE: Soft money contributions to the national parties were not publicly disclosed until the 1991-92 election cycle, and were banned by the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act following the 2002 elections.
Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.
Technorati Tags: democrats tort reform, howard dean tort reform, medical tort reform, obama tort reform, health care tort reform, tort reform
Where have you ordered a design? Horror (((
Reply to this
in your country is switching to winter time?
Reply to this
What is CMS??
Reply to this
You wrote this article?
Reply to this
Yes
Reply to this
How to get rid of the dependence of FaceBook?
Reply to this
Who knows what today lunar day?
Reply to this
Where have you ordered a design? Horror (((
Reply to this
Very amusing thought, well told, just do everything laid out on the shelves
Reply to this