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>$9,236.11. That’s the amount of money that the health care industry spent on lobbying in the time it took me to listen to a Bruce Springsteen song this morning.*

In the time it took for me to write this blog post, the for-profit health care industry spent $43,750. That’s about 15 minutes, and the amount is more than the average person, the kind of person that health care reform might really benefit, makes in a year.

Reading the Washington Post on the bus on the way to work this morning, I was shocked to see how much money the health care industry is spending on lobbyists: $1.4 million a day.**

For those of you keeping track: 12 minute bus ride = $35,000 spent by the health care industry on lobbying.

Most of this money is going to Capitol Hill insiders: persons with legislative or administrative experience working for members of Congress or former members of Congress themselves. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) spent $7 million in the first quarter of 2009. Pfizer spent $6 million in the same time period.

In Washington, people are used to industries throwing money around. It is a fact of daily life. But this amount is beyond anything that anyone has ever seen before. The oil industry, for example, spent record amounts in the first quarter of this year: an average of $49,444 a day.

That’s right. The health care industry is spending almost a million dollars a day more than the oil industry.

These folks gave money during the campaign cycle too. And when the health care industry gave a lot of money to a Senator, they became less likely to be supportive of a public option. This isn’t an accusation, either. This is statistically verified.

The people who are throwing massive amounts of cash around Washington are not the same people who would benefit from there being a public option for health insurance. According to the Post article:

“The aim of the lobbying blitz is simple: to minimize the damage to insurers, hospitals and other major sectors while maximizing the potential of up to 46 million uninsured Americans as new customers.”

The aim is not in keeping with the desires of the American people. 72 percent of Americans want a public option for health care. And the desire of the people and the desires of the big pockets are not in line.

So what’s more important, people’s health or insurance company profits? If the money going to lobbyists has anything to do with it, profits are going to take priority.

*Used Cars off of 1982′s Nebraska, which clocks at three minutes and ten seconds. The opinion that this is the best of Springsteen’s albums is my own.

**Calculations in this blog post are based on an 8 hour day.

>UFCW members were on Capitol Hill last week to lobby their elected officials and speak out about the importance of health care reform.

>What do you do when your fear appeals are no longer working in your fight to stop Americans from getting the health care reform they want? Most people would think about changing tactics, but not the GOP! In an new NBC/WSJ poll it is clear that the American public supports a public plan.

From the Wall Street Journal.

“There was also support for the Democratic push to let people sign up for a public health-care plan that would compete with private companies, one of the toughest issues in the health-care debate. Three in four people said a public plan is extremely or quite important.”

This is from a paper whose editorial board hates the idea of a public option, who today gave Karl Rove space for an op-ed to say that the plan was a bad idea and use scare-tacticy phrases like “nationalization.”

So what’s going on? How can a paper print poll results on one page which clearly demonstrate that the public is indeed in the mood for a drastic change in current coverage, that 75% Americans believe that a public plan for health insurance is a good idea, and then print GOP scare tactics on their op-ed page?

Goes to show: the same poll finds that only 25% of Americans hold a positive view of the Republican party. That’s an all-time-low for what was once the party of Lincoln.

The scare tactics that the GOP is using against the public health care option are failing and making the party look bad in the process.

The poll also shows that people don’t want their benefits to be taxed, that maybe increasing taxes on the wealthiest among us is a better idea. We couldn’t agree more!