Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

If you think a ~$100,000 a year to a politician (plus another couple million to some other politicians) is largely responsible for the rules that govern how 20% of our economy functions you are quite mistaken.

There are huge economic and political forces at work that render Aetna's tiny expenditure irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

I'm no expert in this at all, but I do know a number of people who work in government and across the board they are all of the opinion that most people would be shocked if they knew just how cheap it was to buy major influence, even at the national level.

> If you think a ~$100,000 a year to a politician (plus another couple million to some other politicians) is largely responsible for the rules that govern how 20% of our economy functions you are quite mistaken.

cough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act cough

That was purchased pretty cheaply, and industries affected by copyright(books, movies, music, software, software) are a decent chunk of the economy.

There are people that are experts and they generally agree that the effects of political contributions are much smaller than is generally believed by the public.

Unless you cite some credible sources, this is just a case of dueling anecdotes.

The average member of the public doesn't care at all about copyright terms so policy in that area is much more susceptible to this sort of thing.

The average member of the public cares a great deal about their health insurance so policy in this area is much much less susceptible to influence with small political donations.