It’s amazing that this is tolerated:
Now, after losing re-election last year despite hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from grateful hospital executives, doctors and other industry officials, he has moved on to Plan B: promoting their cause as a lobbyist.
Yet it’s common practice in our congress which has recently shown faux concern about deficits, spending and governing.
His role as an industry champion shows the enduring power of being a well-placed friend in the capital. At least 160 former lawmakers currently work as lobbyists in Washington, according to First Street, a Web site that tracks lobbying trends in Washington, with many more exerting influence as consultants or advisers.
Medicynical Note: The problem cuts across party boundries, though there are many more republican linked lobbyists. These people do not represent you and me. For the most part they are clients of business and in the medical field, pharmaceutical companies, insurers, device manufacturers and so on. Guess whose interests are sacrficed.
Is it no wonder our system of health care is only a system in that it is systematically rigged to promote the well being of business interests, not patients.
Medicynic 