Dollar Politics: Are Payments to Politicians Tools or Bribes?

A new podcast from NPR says that the line is so blurred that there's no real answer to that quesiton. And that should scare us.

NPR's new audio series, Dollar Politics, was launched just last month to look at the millions upon millions of dollars being poured into Congress this summer. Pete Overby and Andrea Seabrook think that all of this money might have something to do with the major policy decisions taking place right now on healthcare and energy issues.

Defenders of the status quo argue that political donations are made to support likeminded allies rather than actually change opinion. But if that's the case, why do so many special interest groups cover their bases and give the maximum legal amount to opposing candidates in the same race? And why was Nate Silver able to reverse engineer the average amount it costs the insurance industry to sway a Senator on whether or not to support a public option for healthcare?

The Dollar Politics podcast gets a quote straight from Rep. Bruce Braley [D-IA], who earlier this year launched a "populist caucus" in the House. At the 3:14 mark, Braley claims that for him and others in Congress, there is a distinct ilne between accepting large amounts of money from industry groups and creating poilcies to regulate those very same groups. But he also admits that representatives are aware of the connection between their votes and the big checks:

"We were under the impression that an entity was going to particpate in my fundraiser, and then a vote came up in the committee and they didn't show up, so I think you can read into that what you will."

In this case, it appears that Braley was willing to forgo the campaign donation and stick with his vote. But do we really believe that this happens every time with every representative? Does every member of Congress stick to their ideals when their very re-election is at stake? Should we leave our future to the vagaries of such a rigged system?

We already know the answer to that one.

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