Crossposted at the Sunlight Foundation blog.
Today, former senators Tom Daschle and Bob Dole released a plan for health care reform that is being hailed as a bipartisan way forward. Headlines blare about the Daschle/Dole plan for health care. But were these two to not have had illustrious careers in the Senate, the headlines would tell a far different story: "Health Care Lobbyists Release Health Care Plan."
Both Daschle and Dole work for a major Washington, DC lobbying firm, Alston & Bird. Many of Alston & Bird's major clients are from the health care sector including the American Hospital Association, HealthSouth Corp, and pharmaceutical companies Abbott Laboratories, Bayer, Celgene, and Mylan Laboratories. In total, Alston & Bird is currently representing 31 clients from the health care sector. Of the $2,730,000 reported income received from clients, nearly 50% of that, $1,070,000, comes from these 31 health care clients.
This looks like another benefit of the revolving door. You can release a legislative proposal from outside of Congress and the first thing anyone thinks of is your previous job and not your current one.
The following 31 companies and organizations are listed as health care sector clients of Alston & Bird:
| Abbott Laboratories | $30,000.00 |
| Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care | $40,000.00 |
| American Assn of Nurse Anesthetists | $30,000.00 |
| American Clinical Laboratory Assn | $10,000.00 |
| American College of Gastroenterology | $50,000.00 |
| American Hospital Assn | $20,000.00 |
| American Orthotic & Prosthetic Assn | $30,000.00 |
| Anthem Inc | $0.00 |
| Bayer AG | $30,000.00 |
| Celgene Corp | $90,000.00 |
| Cltn of Full Service Community Hospitals | $40,000.00 |
| Covenant Health System | $10,000.00 |
| CSL Behring | $30,000.00 |
| CVS/Caremark Corp | $20,000.00 |
| Endo Pharmaceuticals | $0.00 |
| Fresenius Medical Care | $40,000.00 |
| Fundamental Health | $0.00 |
| Generic Pharmaceutical Assn | $50,000.00 |
| Giner Inc | $20,000.00 |
| Health Management Assoc | $30,000.00 |
| HealthSouth Corp | $110,000.00 |
| Humana Inc | $0.00 |
| Kidney Care Council | $90,000.00 |
| Lifescan | $30,000.00 |
| Mylan Laboratories | $50,000.00 |
| National Assn for Home Care | $50,000.00 |
| National Assn of Behavioral Health | $20,000.00 |
| Roche Group | $30,000.00 |
| Roho Group | $50,000.00 |
| Tennessee Hospital Assn | $20,000.00 |
| Vision Service Plan | $50,000.00 |
Will this Congress and this administration be satisfied with having brought a whole people to their knees? It's clear that there is no Republican who is concerned about the healthcare crisis for the largest sector of America. Maybe it's time to focus on a third party who will work strictly for the people, and who will go up against these two worn out parties, and actually rebuff the lobbyist to achieve the needs of the largest part of the population. Congress, who is controlled by the lobbyists on every level, will never compromise their own selfish and greed ridden needs for the nation as a whole. If it's to be done the American people must band together to do it before it's too late.
This economic crisis has plagued Michigan since the auto industry began outsourcing overseas years ago, and now it has reached unmatched proportions. Its impossible to believe that Congress did not foresee this healthcare crisis. And...now as this crisis is brought before them as an urgent need, they are still dragging their feet and tossing around compromise.. Isn't 50 years enough to know where healthcare needs to be in this country?Will the public funded healthcare our President is talking about consist of people waiting in a line for mediocre care? Given inferior care while Congress receives the best care possible? This is not what America is about. This economic crisis has plagued Michigan since the auto industry began outsourcing overseas years ago, and now it has reached unmatched proportions. Its impossible to believe that Congress did not foresee this healthcare crisis. And...now as this crisis is brought before them as an urgent need, they are still dragging their feet and tossing around compromise.. Isn't 50 years enough to know where healthcare needs to be in this country? The same people have been trying to work on healthcare for 50 years or more. Apparently, they need to be fired for not having achieved the level of success that the American people deem acceptable. Now the affects of what originated in Michigan, is speading swiftly across the country.
What would it take to make our President understand that we are not going to be satisfied with anything less than what he promised the people in his campaign? A representative for single payer healthcare should be front and center at the table representing the American people without healthcare because that's what this is about. It is not about the people who have healthcare and are satisfied with it. Yet they are the ones who are arguing about what someone else should or shouldn't have. We're tired of anyone telling us what we need. The President promises to make healthcare affordable. From experience, here in Michigan, tell the person who has lost their home, lost their job, and who currently has no healthcare, that they are going to pay for affordable healthcare. How? The American people are being sold a bill of goods that is not what is in the best interest of the people as a whole. Will the public funded healthcare our President is talking about consist of people waiting in a line for mediocre care? Given inferior care while Congress receives the best care possible? This is not what America is about.
At what point does a Bob Dole or Tom Dashle say, "I have accumulated enough money in my lifetime. Now it's time for me to actually give back ,and do something fair and just for the people who have paid my healthcare for decades, and make sure they have the same care that I have enjoyed before I leave this earth?" Life is like a checkbook. We have to put in more than we take out. Too many in this country have done nothing but take without ever actually having to put in with the lucky loopholes of wealth. If there was a way to eliminate selfishness and greed, we would have a real chance to make healthcare work. While we hope we're evolving toward a higher level of intelligence, it would appear we are sliding swiftly into a quagmire of narrow minded thinking based on pure greed and selfishness. While most people profess to be Christians, it would appear that most have all but forgotten "The Golden Rule". You know, "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you." The disappointing element here is that Barack Obama must have known that Tom Dashle was a lobbyist for healthcare, and yet he attempted to put him in charge of it. Apparently, President Obama is not being honest when he said he would reject lobbyists.
Cannot tell you why or how, but I am privvy to the hundreds of Emails coming in my inbox right now from the Insurance Company Lobbyists. I cannot begin to tell you how many conference calls, meetings and "please write your Congressman" Emails I am getting against a Public Healthcare System. I really do think, and because he was an "almost Heathcare Secretary", Tom Daschle's statement yesterday, pretty much put the final nail in the "Public Healthcare Coffin".