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Sometimes even big corporations can’t get what
they want from Congress. But — hey — that’s why they have
special friends in high places.
Aon Corp. is a Chicago-based global conglomerate that
counts Sterling Life Insurance Co. among its subsidiaries. Last year, Aon
lobbyists had written a little amendment that would have made a big change
in the Medicare insurance program — a change that (surprise!) would
have given an advantage to Aon over other insurers.
In the regular legislative process, however,
Aon’s lobbyists could not get Congress to go along. Indeed, when the
House-Senate conference committee hammered out the final version of its
Medicare bill, Aon’s change was specifically rejected.
Yet when the voluminous bill was passed into law,
four sentences that neither the House’s nor the Senate’s
negotiators had approved miraculously appeared down in the dense text. They
were the exact four sentences that Aon wanted, bending the Medicare law in
its favor. From whence cometh this legislative miracle? From that old
corporate favor-doer, Denny Hastert, then the speaker of the House. After
the House-Senate negotiators had rejected the amendment — and just
hours before the bill was voted on by the full House — Hastert
appointed himself a majority of one and had the Rules Committee
surreptitiously tuck Aon’s special-interest provision into the bill.
Denny, ever the legislative prankster, did not bother
to mention his banana-republic coup to the conference-committee
negotiators, so they ended up voting unwittingly for a bill that contained
the very giveaway they thought they had stopped.
Will it surprise you to learn that Aon has been a
loyal campaign donor to Hastert and the GOP? This is why we need public
financing of elections — to stop such sleazy legislative
“miracles.” To help, call Public Campaign: 202-293-0222.
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, columnist, and author.
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, columnist, and author.
