Who Does The Government Work For?

The documentary Priceless begins with the narrator stating that every morning United States senators wake up and recognize that they need to make a certain amount of money or at the end of the next election they will not have jobs. This is a cause for some concern as many questions are raised as to where the money comes from and how congressmen will balance the decisions they make versus the decisions of those who supply the most money. The big question is- who is the government really working for?

I took a look at a Pennsylvania senator to try to see if I could find a pattern in his decision making process that relates to the money that he receives from contributing organizations. Bob Casey is assigned to three different committees and his three largest contributors fall into the energy sector and the electronic sector. It is interesting to note that Casey’s platform as well as many of the legislative decisions he makes do not have anything to do with either of these sectors. While yes, some of his legislation can be seen as being related to interests that his top contributors would agree with, it does not appear that his voting record is shaped on where much of his resources are coming from.

The majority of Casey’s funds come from large individual contributions with a quarter of his funds coming in from PACs. Lobbyists contributing to Bob Casey in the past five years include Comcast Corp, Air Products & Chemicals Inc, and Reed Smith LLP. These corporations are technology businesses and suppliers of gases, chemicals, and energy systems. This is no surprise however, because there are clear relationships between goals that certain committees aim to promote, and the organizations that financially promote them.

Members of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which Casey is a part of, devote much of their time to workplace issues and received more than $8 million dollars in contributions in the 2014 election cycle from energy sectors.  In addition, almost $9 million dollars is donated from both the electronics sectors and energy sectors for members of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee in which the Pennsylvania Senator also belongs to.

Senator Casey has made many efforts to improve the workplace and clean up the environment, but it does not seem like any of this legislative action is being directly influenced by PACs or other organizations. It may simply be that as a member of specific committees, Casey is more likely to come into contact with certain issues and legislation, and as a result related businesses take an interest in him. He has made extensive efforts to develop cleaner ways of producing electricity, improve the quality of the workplace, and prevent chemical accidents which could all be seen as potentially being related to his contributors. However the roles could also be reversed. His contributors may take interest in him because of his efforts. It is hard to say where the line is drawn between contributions and bribes. It is also difficult to determine when a politician promotes a policy in order to better their community or to better their chances of financial stability and reelection. It is up to the discretion of one’s constituents to determine when a politician has fallen victim to money and lobbyists, but it seems to me that Senator Robert Casey does not fall under this description.