Here’s an idea. Let’s say we pass federal legislation allowing politicians to take all the lobbyist money they want. The sky’s the limit. However, once they take money from a lobbyist they can never vote on a bill that affects that lobby. And they especially can’t introduce a bill that benefits that lobby as Florida’s own Mario Diaz-Balart did recently for a Maryland prosthetic company.
Mario and his older brother Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart co-sponsored a bill that would broaden insurance coverage to include more products of Hanger Orthopedic Group, thereby boosting their profit-margin with your tax dollars.
Now, even if there is no quid pro quo here, especially if there’s no quid pro quo here, it would be nice to not even have that worry. We would see that Hanger gave $10,000 to the brothers, and we wouldn’t care, because they wouldn’t be involved in trying to increase Hanger’s bottom line.
It may even be a good bill that they are sponsoring. But, wouldn’t we all be happier if we were certain that the brothers Diaz-Balart were acting on principle, and not governing by donor request?
