Very quick blog. I just want to point out how health insurance money influences positions to the detriment of the states that Representatives and Senators represent.

Last week, Senator McConnell went on a heated tirade about how the HHS was telling an insurance company with very close ties to Senator McConnell to stop sending misleading propaganda to its insurees was a  "gag order" and "stifles free speech".

An editorial in the Lexington Herald Leader responds--and I think the writer does  a far better job than I can:

It's stirring, isn't it? Spine-tingling, really, to hear our senior senator defend the free speech rights of a corporation whose foundation and founder have pledged $1.5 million to his center at the University of Louisville. Humana's PAC and employees also constitute McConnell's seventh-largest contributor.

The editorial also goes into how many more Kentuckians are uninsured now than 10 years ago (McConnell's been a senator since 1985) This is the Senate Minority Leader and it seems that he's just as beholden to health insurers as any Senator. How can we have legitimate reform when our Senators and leaders pitch for companies and not the people who will benefit from universal health care?

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props to my friend Brian for giving me a heads up about the editorial