>> Massachusetts Democratic Representative Ritchie Neal is the subject of a new attack
ad that I absolutely love because it calls him out for the exact reasons that we criticize
corporate Democrats. Democrats who fight against the best interests, of their own constituents
and of the American people overall. So this is in regard to bipartisan legislation.
This is legislation that Republicans agree to, that would put an end to surprise medical
billing. But would you look at that, Representative Neal takes money from the private healthcare
industry. They didn't like the legislation, so he effectively blocked it. He stalled it
by proposing his own legislation alongside a Republican lawmaker that was incredibly
watered down and would give hospitals and doctors the ability to continue with the surprise
medical billing.
So the ad that you're about to watch is sponsored by the Fight Corporate Monopolies Group. And
I absolutely love it. Let's take a quick look at it.
>> Congressman Richie Neal has sided with greedy corporations over us. Let's follow
the money. Hospital monopolies profit off of our pain by sticking us with surprise medical
bills.
These monopolies are owned by wall street titans like Blackstone. Neal protected Blackstone's
profits by killing a bill that would have saved patients money. Now, Blackstone is Richie
Neal's top contributor and one of Donald Trump's too. Corporate power is corrupting democracy.
And Richie Neal is part of the problem.
Fight Corporate Monopolies is responsible for the content of this ad.
>> So the ad mentions Blackstone Group is one of his donors and I think it is important
to take a look at what kind of funding he's received from Blackstone. As Daniel Marans
over at Huffington Post reports, Neal actually had not received donations from Blackstone
in the previous three election cycles.
However, starting in 2019 he began receiving hefty donations from the firm's top officers.
Blackstone President Johnathan Gray, contributed the maximum amount, which is $5,600. The combined
maximum for the primary and general elections. And Neil Simpkins, a senior executive who
oversaw Blackstone's acquisition of team health in 2016 gave Neil $2,800.
Now some of you might be thinking, well, that doesn't sound like too much money to bribe
a politician. But remember politicians are purchased cheaply. It doesn't really take
too much to sway them in the direction of working against their constituents best interests
in favor of the best interests of corporate power.
And in this case, of course, it impacts how the healthcare industry is regulated and how
we as Americans, end up getting billed when it comes to life saving medical care.
>> All right, a little bit more context. So as Ana pointed out, he got over $40,000 overall
from these folks.
And so why do they give it to him? Well, the fact that Republicans agreed to this bill
was near miraculous. They almost always say no. No to ever helping anyone. And in this
case, the surprise bills work this way if you've never been hit with one. You go to
the hospital, the hospital is in your network, everything is fine.
And then they go surprise, two doctors that looked at you are not in your network. You
didn't know it. They didn't tell you. But they're outside of your network and now you
owe $8,700 to those doctors. What? Right, and so that is so outrageous that even Republican
voters are like, no way.
No way. This is it's killing us. And so Republican politicians felt enough pressure for them
to say okay, this is the one thing that we will do that is positive in healthcare. So
then guys like the Blackstone folks who bought that healthcare company panic. They go, how
do we block this bill?
I got it. One, it's too obvious if we go to the Republicans, let's go to a Democrat that
pretends to actually care about health care. It'll be better cover story. Which Democrat
are you gonna go? You gotta go to a powerful one. Well Richie Neal is head of the House
Ways and Means Committee.
That is the committee that controls all the money. So you can't go to a better person
to block a bill. He has power over almost every bill. So they go to Richie Neal and
go hey, you remember how we haven't given you any money. Now we're gonna give you $48,000.
Now you're gonna do as we tell you, right? And Ritchie Neal being the corporate democrat
that he is, of course sir, yes sir. Who do you need me to crush on your behalf, sir?
And so all of a sudden he develops a newfound ideology that surprise bills are awesome.
And that you should have to pay for them. And in this explanation as he proposes a new
legislation that'll be much, much better with his friend Kevin Brady who is a Republican.
They say, well, we got to let the private industry sort this out. Come on. That is Republican
101.
In other words, we are not going to do anything about this. He's been in Congress forever.
He knows that if he blocks that bill, they're never gonna consider his bill. He doesn't
even want them to consider his bill. The whole point is to block it on behalf of his donors.
These are the sick people that are in democratic leadership. Then we got the press gaslighting
us all day long. Hey, they're on your team. They're not on my team. Hell no. Hey, they
agree with you. No, they don't. They don't agree with us at all. They're corporate sellouts.
That's not some sort of purity test. That's just the most core part of politics. That
they will block even the smallest reform as long as they get bribed in the right direction
from corporations that totally and utterly control them. Now, the great news in this
particular race, and I'm so glad that they're pointing this out, they're pointing it out
because it's Ritchie Neal, and he's one of the most powerful guys in Congress, even if
you haven't heard of them.
But there is actually a justice Democrat in this race. Alex Morris in a primary and the
primary is always September 1. So Alex has a very good chance of winning. He's a progressive.
He's for Medicare for all. This would be a Jamal Bowman AOC size win. It would arguably
even larger than Jamal Bowman, because Jamal Bowman took out a committee chair, but the
most powerful committee is ways and means which Richard Neal runs.
You take out that committee chair. You send a giant warning shot to every Democrat. You
want to take $48,000 from the worst people on earth? Well, maybe that's not gonna help
you keep your job. It might cost you your job, and then all of a sudden precious, then
they care about power and then they'll want to maybe care about their voters.
So Alex Morse's information and his lengths to donate to volunteer are alexmorseforcongress.com.
They're in the description box below. You can easily click on it and check it out for
yourself. But the most important part is pointing out what corporate democrats and democratic
leadership is all about. Last thing about that.
Richard Neal didn't get there by accident. Nancy Pelosi put him there dxactly. So that
he could take this kind of money and block any reform and Pelosi can have clean hands
and go ha golly gee, I didn't do anything. I didn't know anything about that. Did Richie
Neal block all progressive reform?
I guess he did, didn't he? So that's how this game is played.