Insurance agents storm Capitol Hill; lobby, pay and pray

[Rose Siding]

In a subterranean hotel ballroom one Thursday morning last month, 1,000 independent insurance agents bowed their heads and asked God to make them good lobbyists.

“May thy bounty strengthen us so that we may communicate with our legislators,” a Montana agent intoned from the podium. It was just after 8 a.m., and the assembled agents were girding themselves for a day full of lobbying, networking and fundraising, all part of their annual legislative meeting.
...
Independent insurance agents have one of the longest running and largest legislative gatherings in Washington. They scheduled 310 meetings with lawmakers or their staffs during the third week of April, covering 46 percent of House offices and 66 percent of the Senate in an exercise that the group’s metaphor-loving chief executive terms “carpet bombing.”
...
Every agent gets color-coded cue cards with talking points on legislative issues. Federal insurance “regulation” is bad, but federal “legislation” to streamline state regulation is good, one turquoise card indicated.
...
Nathan Riedel, the vice president of political affairs, had assigned out-of-town agents to attend more than 40 fundraisers, including ones for House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Sens. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). Agents brought with them checks from the Big I’s political action committee, InsurPac.

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/051205/lobby.html

[Nite Owl]

1. This is what makes any type of

reform so difficult. Congress is all so in debt to these corporations, it becomes their job insurance while we suffer.

[MadHound]

4. Yeppers, which is just another reason why we need

Publicly financed election campaigns and instant runoff voting nationwide. Gee, we could tax the lobbying industry to pay for it too, how's that for killing two birds with one stone:evilgrin:

[havocmom]

2. kick

:kick:

[Skidmore]

3. Insurance is the one industry on this earth I would like

to see disappear. Insurance companies are leeches and vultures.

[Sir Jeffrey]

5. WWJL?

Who would Jesus lobby?