For all the lack of action from Blue Dog Democrats on health care and labor law reform, all in the name of the interests of the health insurance industry and Chamber of Commerce - you would assume that pro-business groups would be their biggest contributors.
But, according to a new report published by the Center For Public Integrity, none of those industries even come close to matchng their top financial contributor - the Labor Movement.
And according to some sources, Labor is starting to become pretty upset. One union, mine, the SMWIA, has just announced it has suspended all political donations to these politicians and will instead divert them to issue ads targeting those who stand in the way of health reform.
The report shows that individually, the Blue Dogs have raised over $6 million combined for their campaigns from political action committees in the first half of 2009.
Of that, nearly $1.5 million comes from labor unions. The second most generous group, the health care sector, was well behind, contributing just $816,000 to the Blue Dogs’ individual campaigns. Nomne of the contribtions from the business groups include the army of volunteers employed at election time which man the phone banks and do the door to door legwork on behalf of these House members.
And what have working people gotten for this effort?
Nothing.
The Employee Free Choice Act is bottled up in the Senate where their counterparts may or may not try to table the majority sign up provision in the bill.
Health reform is being held hostage by conservative Democrats because of issues like the public option which would lower health care costs and avert the rise of premiums by $11,600 within the next seven years.
Some of these conservative Democrats, like Max Baucus in the Senate, have all but insisted that a new tax on workers' employee benefits be included - so that cigarette manufacturers and liquor producers don't have to sell their products at higher tax rates.
With all that in mind, the question in labor circles is starting to become not if, but when, the Blue Dogs and their Senate counterparts like Senator Baucus will be cut off from working people's money.