In 2007 Rick Perry signed an executive order in Texas requiring all public school girls to get the vaccine Gardasil, which protects against the sexually transmitted disease HPV. The decision caused outrage on all sides of the political spectrum and Perry later had to rescind the order.

Gardasil is manufactured by Merck. During Monday night’s Republican debate, Michele Bachmann went after Perry over the executive order and tied it to money Perry had received from Merck. Perry claimed that he only received $5,000 from the drug maker, but it turns out that’s not the whole story:

As for the claim that Merck has given a $5,000 dollar contribution to the governor’s campaign, that is true, but not the whole story.

Perry also received $6,000 from Merck’s political action committee during a different re-election campaign.

Texas Ethics Commission records show he has accepted $29,500 from the Merck PAC during his entire tenure as governor, $22,000 of it prior to his 2007 order.

There’s also the story of Mike Toomey, Perry’s chief of staff. Toomey was the chief lobbyist for Merck and a state legislature before working for Perry. He also gives big to his buddy:

Toomey himself, has contributed more than $48,000 to Texans for Rick Perry during his decade in office.

I love that this is finally getting out there, but why is it Bachmann is the one getting the story out there and not the media? Remember, this is the same Bachmann that blasts anyone getting money from the federal government, yet her and her husband has received large amounts of federal “welfare”.

Another thing is that this story likely won’t gain much traction and that shows just how broken our political process actually is. Here’s a few examples that mimic what Perry has done, yet people just seem to don’t care:

• Eric Cantor refuses to allow legislation letting the government to negotiate for cheaper drug prices for Medicare and Medicaid. Cantor is one of the top recipient of pharmaceutical campaign contributions in the House. As matter of fact the top 20 recipients of this money in Congress are opposed to this legislation (both Democrat and Republican. Both being bought buy big pharma and screwing over the American people in the name of political money).
• Remember bird flu? Remember when the government started buying stockpiles of Tamiflu, the only “government approved” drug to treat the disease? When that happened in 2005 Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense. Now who knows what Rumsfeld’s job was prior to becoming Def. Sec.? He was the chairman of the board for Gilead, the manufacturer of Tamiflu. Rumsfeld made at least a cool million over this whole thing.
• Then we have the grand-daddy of them all. This comes in the form of Dick Cheney, the CEO of Halliburton turned vice-President. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, waged by the Bush/Cheney administration, the former veep saw his stock portfolio increase over 3,000%, all in Halliburton stock.

These are only some examples of how money influences the decisions of our leaders despite it being in the best interest of our nation.  The problem also transcends political lines, however it is more prevalent on the right. Also so many on the right don’t see any problem with this. They complain about “government waste” and our growing deficit, but are unable to make the connection between the items I listed above and our growing government expenditures.

Negotiating for cheaper drug prices will cost more? That’s what we hear from the opponents of such a measure. They never could give reason, but just say it and many Americans are to lazy to question why.

Using contractors in war is cheaper than using military, yet Halliburton saw their stocks skyrocket over it. Paying a private soldier $150,000/year is cheaper than paying a U.S. soldier $30,000/year? It’s an absolute failure in math, yet people just buy into the spin. (Speaking of this, even David Patraeus, hero of the right to the point they wanted him to run for President, is now saying it’s time to get rid of war contractors.)

Here’s the cold hard fact about all this. Until Americans are willing to wake up and question what these people say and do instead of blindly following them off the cliff America is going to continue to die. We have to many voters in this country who will believe 2+2=5 just because a politician in their party says so. I really don’t know if it’s because American’s are to lazy to question these people or if they are to stupid to think beyond the rhetoric. Whatever the answer is, it’s unacceptable. We need an electorate that can think for themselves and not buy into what the politicians and pundits say without question.  Wake up America, it’s only your future at stake here!