The Best Government Money Can Buy? (2009) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
3 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
8/10
Very informative
rbdmcp24 July 2016
I've heard of the lobbying effort before but had no idea the extent to which it wields change in government and encourages to me anyway legal corruption. These people bombard our so called representatives with they wants and also remind politicians of the monies contributed by the organizations they represent which mostly corporations whose interests don't usually jibe with those of the average citizen. This is how a bill such as the medicare drug plan gets passed with Medicare not being able to negotiate prices which already has cost taxpayers over a billion dollars and enriched the coffers of the greedy pharmaceutical industry and those politicians that saw to it the legislation was passed with that restriction.

I do believe the average understands the impact of lobbying efforts and contributions.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Bought and paid for...
poe42628 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
If there's a Given, it's that politicians will sell their Souls to the highest bidder; that's the nature of The Game. No big secret there. Still, it boggles the mind to think that an off-hand comment, made in passing, could change the course of Human Events- but it does, apparently more often than some of us might've realized. Watching bought and paid for politicians dancing to the tune(s) their Buyers sing can be as funny as it is frustrating- especially when said politicians don't seem to grasp the ludicrousness of what they're doing or saying. When the local cable system dropped C-Span 2 and the public Access Channel (for which I'd fought long and hard) from its lineup, I sought an alternative- and found it on direct satellite. It's called LINK TV and it's mind-blowing. There's truth in advertising, after all, it seems: You get what you pay for...
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Mediocre and superficial
jsevakis6 November 2010
I can imagine this is a very enlightening documentary if you're completely clueless about how Washington DC works, and therefore have a completely Pollyanna opinion of government.

I don't know too many people like that these days. In fact, most people are deeply cynical. The only ones that aren't are the ones who find it confusing and just don't care.

As an unchallenging, unprobing view of how lobbyists work in Washington that pretty much anyone could understand, this isn't a bad doc. It's not very probing, doesn't investigate anything not considered common knowledge by anyone who follows the news, and is unlikely to cause any strong reaction. It's adequately produced, along the lines of a local PBS special. It's also fairly non-partisan (it barely acknowledges the existence of parties). Perhaps it might be of interest of Europeans who occasionally look into American politics with a sense of schadenfreude (the producer/director is British), but I can't imagine anyone who's not turned off by the subject matter being all that enlightened by it in this country.
1 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed