WASHINGTON — Following last week’s riot here, several major health care corporations and lobbying groups are reevaluating their support for the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying the results of November’s presidential election.
Most notably, PhRMA, the drug industry trade group known for aggressive campaign spending, said it would pause contributions specifically to candidates who voted against certifying President-elect Biden’s Electoral College win. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, an insurer federation, announced last week it would do the same. The American Hospital Association, which initially suspended all contributions, announced Thursday that it, too, would suspend donations specifically to the Republicans who voted against certifying the election result.
“The actions that took place violate the values of our nation and the values held by America’s biopharmaceutical research companies,” Stephen Ubl, PhRMA’s president and CEO, told STAT in a statement. “That is why we are pausing political giving to those who voted to reject the outcome of the election.”
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On the same day this article was written, NPR had a piece on the well-known far-right billionaire owner of Uline, Inc – supplier to almost every Pharma in the world, and contributor to the Tea Party Patriots, one of the 11 groups reported to have participated in the “Stop the Steal” event at our nation’s capitol last week. That would be Dick Uihlein – hiding in plain sight, thus not mentioned anywhere in these articles..
From NPR: The Uline shipping supplies company is based in Pleasant Prairie, a Wisconsin town just over the state line from Illinois. Uihlein and his wife, Liz, have been among the biggest political donors in the country and in Illinois campaigns for years.
Dick Uihlein has shelled out more than $136 million to federal candidates and campaign committees, according to FEC records. He’s also contributed about tens of millions more to campaign in Illinois, most of that to the now-defunct Liberty Principles PAC.
In April 2016, Uihlein began to heavily support the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, a PAC started in 2013. Records show he gave it nearly $1.5 million in 2016, more than $1 million in 2017, $950,000 in 2018 and the single, $800,000 contribution last year.
That’s made Uihlein by far the single biggest donor to the Tea Party Patriots’ PAC in each of the last three two-year federal election cycles, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group in Washington.
Records show the Tea Party Patriots had contributed in recent years to Trump and to Republican lawmakers, including members of Congress who sought to overturn Biden’s victories in hotly contested states. They included Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Mo Brooks of Alabama, whom House Democrats want to censure for his remarks at the Trump rally.
“The group lent its name to a rally that led to an insurrection,” said Don Wiener, a researcher with the left-leaning Center for Media and Democracy in Madison, Wis.
And: “Donors bear some responsibility for the activity of the groups they fund.” REALLY??? The Tea Party Patriots touts itself as the “largest and most effective national umbrella group within the Tea Party movement.”
If Pharma or any other groups are going to suddenly concern themselves with where their contributions went, it’s out of concern for product boycotts…ooops. But Dick Uihlein has been one of the nation’s biggest dark-money players for decades, and even though it’s been reported repeatedly, he isn’t worried about a boycott of HIS company. Pharma and reporters COULD do the right thing and start one, FINALLY.
If not, he’ll be allowed to continue to buy people as evil as he is positions in our U.S. Senate – where they can threaten our Democracy and make something like last week’s murderous horror happen more and more often.
I hope these entities make their actions permanent and not back down if and when things cool off a bit. These legislators have revealed themselves for what they truly are (and always have been). They should not be supported by anyone of decency and conscience.
Hopefully many big sponsors follow suit. The attack on Capitol Hill is abhorrent, several GOP crooks should be jailed for their cowardness or silent complicity. Let the funding of these dark characters come to a full stop. And everyone better be carefull this month as even the FBI says the lunacy is not over yet. If this turns into a full-blown civil war it will be the end of the “greatest nation in the world”.
Gee, did anybody do that after Antifa and Black Lives Matter burned,looted and murdered? I guess that doesn’t fit the narrative of the far left lunatics. The Democrat leaders of those cesspools let it happen.Nothing to see hear,move along. They disgust me.
apples and oranges
consider more carefully
Big money runs DC from K street ; the health care industry and Big Pharma donate 10’s of millions of dollars per year to campaigns ; Sheila is living under a rock for sure