Meet Clayton Yeutter: heartland Republican, onetime agriculture secretary, former RNC chairman, powerful Capital Hill lobbyist and reported babykiller. Here’s the story: a few years ago the Department of Health and Human Services became alarmed about the historically-low rates at which moms were breastfeeding their spawns, because as much as it revolts most Republicans to glimpse a woman’s bare nipple while she performs this hippie ritual in public, they’d read the studies about how breast milk helps kids avoid sudden infant death syndrome along with all those chronic health problems that get the citizenry all worked up over the skyrocketing cost of the world’s most advanced health care. So: they approved some stark public service advertisements meant to urge women to breast feed. And that’s when they crossed Clayton, reincarnated as a powerful lobbyist for the baby formula industry, teat of choice for Republican fundraisers
So who says money can’t buy good public policy? If by “good”, you mean “which, as a lobbyist, is best for my client”, then yes, money truly is the mother’s milk of politics.
It doesn’t matter that it’s been demonstrated time and again that mother’s milk really is a better option for newborn babies. This hardly comes as news. When you have a well-connencted Republican on your payroll, though, he can find a way to convince his cronies that his pals in the baby formula industry really do have a better option. The next thing you know, the message has changed into something much more friendly to Clayton Yuetter’s client. Your tax dollars at work…or not, really.
Politics has always been about money and connections, and Republicans are by no means the only one’s guilty of sucking the teat for a wee bit too long. Nonetheless, the fact that Yuetter is a Republican is no mere coincidence in this case. In fact, Yuetter’s efforts merely serve as yet more proof that when it comes to a question of public health vs. money…well, there’s absolutely no doubt as to which consideration will win.
The ads ran instead with more friendly images of dandelions and cherry-topped ice cream scoops, to dramatize how breast-feeding could help avert respiratory problems and obesity. In a February 2004 letter (pdf), the lobbyists told then-HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson they were “grateful” for his staff’s intervention to stop health officials from “scaring expectant mothers into breast-feeding,” and asked for help in scaling back more of the ads.
While everyone seems to be understandably fixated on Sen. Larry Craig, it’s people like Clayton Yuetter who pose a far greater risk to the public interest. When sufficient amounts of money and influence can be applied to an issue, the player with the least active conscience normally wins.
Hey, it’s only the health of babies we’re talking about , eh??
