In 1994, when he was still representing a different and more conservative Congressional District, Jim Cooper did more than almost any other Democratic member of Congress to kill off President Clinton’s health care reform legislation.

Fifteen years later, America’s health care system is more broken and costs continue to skyrocket. Now, as a key member of the Blue Dog Coalition's Health Care Reform task force, Jim Cooper is once again leading the charge to stop real reform.

In addition to helping doom any Democratic hopes for universal coverage in 1994, Jim Cooper was also one of only ten Democrats in the entire House of Representatives to vote against expanding health care coverage to millions of uninsured children.

Not surprisingly, Jim Cooper now says he supports the idea of small regional cooperatives -- an idea favored by the health insurance industry -- instead of the robust public option strongly favored by his constituents in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District; this even though the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has concluded that a robust public option could reduce average family health insurance premiums by 10% (or roughly $1,300 a year), and many health care experts believe that the co-ops supported by Cooper will do nothing to bring down the out of control costs of health care.

Why is Jim Cooper standing with for-profit insurance companies and against his constituents in Tennessee?

Why does Jim Cooper say that insurance companies "aren't the root of the problem?"

Maybe it's because his campaigns have received nearly $1 million from the health care industry.