Fwd: qotd: Obamacare architects reap windfall as lobbyists

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: qotd: Obamacare architects reap windfall as lobbyists
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 12:42:03 -0700
From: Don McCanne <don@mccanne.org>
To: Quote-of-the-Day <quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org>



The Hill
August 25, 2013
ObamaCare's architects reap windfall as Washington lobbyists
By Megan R. Wilson

ObamaCare has become big business for an elite network of Washington
lobbyists and consultants who helped shape the law from the inside.
More than 30 former administration officials, lawmakers and
congressional staffers who worked on the healthcare law have set up shop
on K Street since 2010.

Veterans of the healthcare push are now lobbying for corporate giants
such as Delta Air Lines, UPS, BP America and Coca-Cola, and for
healthcare companies including GlaxoSmithKline, UnitedHealth Group and
the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Ultimately, the clients are after one thing: expert help in dealing with
the most sweeping overhaul of the country's healthcare system in decades.

Experts say that those able to fetch the highest salaries have come from
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or committees with
oversight power over healthcare.

"After passage of major legislation, those who have networks on Capitol
Hill take exceedingly lucrative jobs with the same industries subject to
the legislation," said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen. "It
raises questions about the [bill's] integrity."

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/318577-architects-of-obamacare-reap-windfall-as-washington-lobbyists


Comment: We need lobbyists, that is lobbyists such as Craig Holman of
Public Citizen. But what about administration officials, lawmakers and
congressional staffers who helped to create a profoundly wasteful health
care financing system that falls tragically short of reform goals, and
then left government employment to accept windfalls as private lobbyists
representing clients who must deal with Obamacare? As Holman says, it
raises questions about the bill's integrity.

Lobbying integrity that makes the difference? "Public Citizen serves as
the people's voice in the nation's capital." Public Citizen is already
on record as supporting a single payer system:

http://www.citizen.org/singlepayer