Big Picture Panel: Kai Newkirk, Democracy Spring/99Rise & Alex Pfeiffer, The Daily Caller. Over the course of a seven hour period that began Wednesday night and lasted until early Thursday morning - Democrats forced a series of amendment-level votes on healthcare policies that are overwhelmingly popular with the American people. The idea behind the so-called "vote-a-rama" was to expose the Republican party's far-right healthcare agenda, and it worked: Senate Republicans are now on record opposing, among other things, Obamacare's protections for people with preexisting conditions, Medicaid expansion, and an amendment banning cuts to Medicare. Unfortunately, the vote-a-rama also exposed the right-wing agenda of some Democrats. A measure that would have allowed Americans to buy cheaper pharmaceuticals from Canada failed because 13 Democrats crossed the aisle and voted against it. One such Democrat was New Jersey Senator Cory Booker - who has received more donations from the pharmaceutical industry in recent years than any other Democrat in the Senate ($267,338). Booker's vote was demonstrably not in the best interest of the American people. Doesn't that show why it's more important than ever that we get money out of politics?
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