(Guest post by Greg Forster)
No sooner do I put up a post on the death of the First Amendment than along comes Jim Geraghty with more free-speech funeral news.
On the floor of the Senate, Sen. Tom Carper appears to have openly and explicitly confirmed that legislators made an illegal quid-pro-quo deal with PhRMA to design health care legislation a certain way in return for a commitment to run ads supporting the bill.
Geraghty is focused on the bribery aspect – PhRMA bought a legislative outcome in exchange for money (spent on ads the legislators wanted). But it’s also a speech issue – congressional leaders used their power over the laws to bend political speech into the shape they wanted it.
The health care people just can’t destroy our freedom fast enough.
