BILL MOYERS: Quality, affordable health care's on the
critical list in America. And so is the newspaper
business. So maybe it's not surprising that one of
the most powerful papers in the country attempted an
unholy alliance, trying to turn a profit from its
newsroom's coverage of the fight for health care
reform.

You may have missed the story because it broke on the
eve of the July 4th weekend. The publisher of THE
WASHINGTON POST, Katharine Weymouth - one of the
most powerful people in the nation's capital -
invited top officials from the White House, the
Cabinet and Congress to her home for an intimate,
off-the-record dinner to discuss health care reform
with some of her reporters and editors covering the
story.

But she then invited CEOs and lobbyists from the
health care industry to come, too - providing
they fork over $25,000 a head, or a quarter of a
million if they want to sponsor a whole series of
these cozy little get-togethers. And what is the
inducement she offers them? Nothing less than -
and I'm quoting the invitation verbatim - "An
exclusive opportunity to participate in the health
care reform debate among the select few who will
actually get it done." The invitation reminds the
CEOs and lobbyists that they will be buying access to
"those powerful few in business and policy making who
are forwarding, legislating, and reporting on the
issues."

Remember, the invitation promises this private,
intimate, and off-the-record dinner is an extension
"of THE WASHINGTON POST brand of journalistic inquiry
into the issues, a unique opportunity for
stakeholders to hear and be heard."

Let that sink in. The "stakeholders" in health care
reform in this case do not include the rabble -
the folks across the country who actually need
quality health care but can't afford it. If any of
them showed up at the kitchen door on the night of
this little soiree, a bouncer would drop kick them
beyond the beltway.

In other words, before you can cross the threshold in
Washington to reach "the select few who will actually
get it done," you must first cross the palm of some
outstretched hand. The dinner was canceled after the
invite was leaked to the website politico.com -
by a health care lobbyist, of all people. But it was
enough to give us a glimpse into how things really
work in Washington. A clear insight into why there is
such a great disconnect between democracy and
government today, between Washington and the rest of
the country.

According to one poll after another, a majority of
Americans not only want a public option in health
care, they also think that growing inequality is bad
for the country, that corporations have too much
power over policy, that money in politics is the root
of all evil, and that working families and poor
communities need and deserve public support when the
market fails to generate shared prosperity. But when
the insiders in Washington finish tearing worthy
intentions apart and devouring flesh from bone, none
of these reforms happen. Oh, they say, "it's all
about compromise, all in the nature of the
give-and-take of representative democracy." That,
people, is bull - the basic nutrient of
Washington's high and mighty.

It's not about compromise. It's not about what the
public wants. It's about money, the golden ticket to
"the select few who actually get it done." And
nothing will change. Nothing. Until the money-lenders
are tossed out of the temple, and we tear down the
sign they've placed on government - the one that
reads: "For sale."

I'm Bill Moyers.