United States House Representative Tom Price serves in Georgia's Sixth Congressional District. Rep. Price has served his district since 2005 as fairly conservative Republican. Through his time in Congress he has gained the respect of his peers and now serves on many influential committees. Most importantly Representative Price currently sits as the Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget. The budget is always a major topic of conversation and debate on Capitol Hill and most recently it has been at the forefront of national attention due to the struggle on whether or not to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. The budget committee has also received significant attention in its refusal to fund Obamacare, which has again caused further strife between Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Price serves other committees and caucuses as well, which includes the House Committee on Ways and Means, the Congressional Health Care Caucus, the Doctors Caucus, the Republican Study Committee, Immigration Reform, Prayer Caucus, Tea Party Caucus, and the Republican Israel Caucus. Rep. Price has also received additional media attention in recent weeks for his voice and submission of his own name into the fight for the next Speaker of the House.
Congressman Price is up for re-election in 2016, so he has obviously begun to do some his fundraising for his campaign back in Georgia. According to opensecrets.org Rep. Price has raised about $534,661 and has spent $434,455 of the money raised so far. The campaign has even a larger amount of cash on hand with around $2,356,602. This money obviously does not just appear out of thin air, so the major question is where does Tom Price's campaign receive most of its money? Opensecrets.org lays out the Top 5 Contributors as well as the Top 5 Industries that financial support the congressman. Top contributors include the Marcus Foundation, which was started by co-founder of Home Depot, Bernard Marcus, and provides supports for human services, mental health, Jewish giving programs, education, and public affairs. Other contributors are the Yancey Brothers, who are major contributors to multiple Republican politicians in Georgia and own a Caterpillar dealership, the American College of Radiology, the McKesson Corp., and the American Academy for Orthopedic Surgeons. The top industries that have given their financial backing to Rep. Price include health professionals, insurance, the retired, real estate, and pharmaceutical and health products. Congressman Price obviously receives much of his funding from health related industries and businesses, which helps to explain his active membership in the House Committee on Ways and Means and for his vocalized ideas against Obamacare. He was a doctor before he made his way to Washington so Rep. Price also seems to have developed influence because of his professional background in the field of health care.
The top contributors to Tom Price's campaigns seem to also play a significant role in the bills that the congressman has sponsored. He has sponsored nine bills in 2015 and five of those nine where in some way related to healthcare. The other bills included a bill proposed to reduce the amount of years representatives were allowed to serve, two bills related to the budget, and an additional bill which proposes a National Linemen Day to recognize the service of these public servants. Rep. Price has also co-sponsored other legislation in 2015 with associating his name with 61 different bills. Once again the bills that he has co-sponsored are skewed primarily towards those related to health care. According to govtrack.us about 58% of all bills that Rep. Tom Price sponsors are related to health, the next highest field that he sponsors is economics and public finance at 21%. Both economics and health are directly related to the committees that Rep. Price has been selected to be a part, but it is clear to see that his primary concern has been with health care in recent years. Price's voting record leaves him in about the middle of the Republican's. He is far from moderate in terms of his voting, but still not extremely far right. Price has also been very consistent in his ability to be present of congressional votes. In his ten years while serving in congress he has missed just 144 votes or 1.8% of all the votes taken during his tenure.
In regards to the influence of money on Congressman Price's political activities, I believe there is no doubt that money does play some role in his decisions, but that there are many other factors that play into his voting and actions in congress. An important factor in Price's history is the fact that he spent many years as a physician before being elected to public office. His personal history alone can help provide an explanation for his support and concern with national health policy and legislation. Individuals and organizations associated with health care and services will also be more willing to provide support for a politician that has previous experience in the field of health and thus explains the majority of his campaign financing.
Sources:
govtrack.us
opensecrets.org
tomprice.house.gov
No comments:
Post a Comment