A Record That Needs More Than A Band-Aid

When you read stories like this one from KOMU, it becomes pretty clear why the GOP leadership picked Roy Blunt to lead their Health Care Solutions Group this year: the man has some seriously awful votes in his record that he will struggle to explain away.  KOMU:

7th District Congressman Roy Blunt, a top contender for Missouri's open Senate seat in 2010, has a much different approach to health care reform [than Senator McCaskill], and his voting record shows it.

He voted three times against expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Plan, which would have covered up to 6 million more children.

In 2007, he voted against a measure that would require pharmaceutical companies to negotiate prices for Medicaid prescription drugs.

He also voted in favor of a measure that would allow hospitals to deny a person non-emergency treatment if that person couldn't pay their Medicare co-pay.

When looking at Blunt's fundraising sources, some interesting numbers pop out.

In his 2007-08 fundraising cycle, Blunt received nearly $500,000 from the health industry, nearly a fifth of his $2.6 million in total funds.

His two largest individual industry donors came from the health professionals and insurance industries.

In the most recent fundraising cycle, Blunt ranks 17th out of the 535 members of Congress in health industry donations.

Wait: didn't Blunt say it was impossible to take money to take money from an industry?  I'm sure he hopes voters believe that.

Image credit: StJoeChannel.com