Silly Sites

John Edwards said:
“I believe that powerful interests, particularly big corporate interests, have literally taken over this government.
And they’ve taken over against the interest of ordinary Americans. And the living, breathing example of that is, in 1993, when we were in control of the White House, of the United States Senate and the United States House, we made an effort to pass universal health-care.
The big drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists killed it.”
When he says that these companies and their lobbyists killed it, does he mean that they bought the votes of those in the government? It seems to me that he is saying two contradictory things here: (a) they were in the majority and were going to use that fact to pass universal health-care, and (b) they did not pass universal health-care because they were bought off.
It seems to me that if you can be bought off then you weren’t really trying to pass universal health care. What am I missing?