http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070730obama,1,4387542.storyCEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama lashed out at the power of the oil, insurance and pharmaceutical industries in blocking progressive policy in Washington as he sought to bolster his credentials as a governmental ethics reformer.
"The reason that we're not getting things done is not because we don't have good plans or good policy prescriptions," Obama said. "The reason is because it's not our agenda that's being moved forward in Washington—it's the agenda of the oil companies, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the special interests who dominate on a day-to-day basis in terms of legislative activity."
In a visit to the gymnasium of Roosevelt Middle School, not far from the Cedar River, Obama said if elected, no one working in his administration would be allowed to lobby the White House after they left. Such a revolving door ban would affect potentially thousands of workers.
Obama cited the school's namesake, Teddy Roosevelt, and the 26th president's activities in busting trusts and breaking up monopolies as he sought to prevent wealth from accumulating in too few hands.
"We can't settle for a second 'Gilded Age' in America," Obama said in a reference to Roosevelt's time at the turn of the 20th Century. "Unfortunately, that's what we're seeing these days."
Obama said the country needs a president who does not see government as a "tool to enrich" friends and corporate interests, but serves as a "defender" for fairness and opportunity for ordinary Americans.
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"In the last six years, our leaders have thrown open the door of Congress and the White House to an army of Washington lobbyists who have turned government into a game only they can play, a game that's played on a field that's not level, that's rigged to always favor their narrow agenda," Obama said.
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