Depressing: Billy Tauzin (ex-rep, big phara rep) visited the WH 11 times

[cali]

in the first 6 months of the Administration.


Once Obama's target, lobbyist Tauzin now his pet
By: Timothy P. Carney
Examiner Columnist
January 6, 2010

White House visitor logs dumped late in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve show that Billy Tauzin, the top lobbyist for the prescription drug industry and once a favorite target of Barack Obama, visited the White House at least 11 times in Obama's first six months in office.

The White House's open door for Tauzin, whom candidate Obama attacked as the embodiment of the revolving door and the corrupt collusion between politicians and industry, further dismantles the myth of Obama as the scourge of special interests. It also bolsters the conclusion that health care "reform" has become a boondoggle for the health industry, especially pharmaceutical companies.

During the presidential primary, in the spring of 2008, Obama ran a campaign ad aimed directly at Tauzin, chief executive officer of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. In the ad, titled "Billy," Obama tells a small gathering of seniors:

"The pharmaceutical industry wrote into the prescription drug plan that Medicare could not negotiate with drug companies. And you know what, the chairman of the committee who pushed the law through went to work for the pharmaceutical industry making $2 million a year. Imagine that. That's an example of the same old game-playing in Washington. I don't want to learn how to play the game better. I want to put an end to the game-playing."

<snip>

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Once-Obama_s-target_-lobbyist-Tauzin-now-his-pet-8722075-80746897.html

and this encapsulates why my enthusiastic support for Obama has vanished. Yes, I'll vote for him, but this is bad stuff.

[Cant trust em]

1. The most frequent visitor to the White House has been Andy Stern, SEIU President

He visited 22 times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/politics/31visitor.html

[babylonsister]

8. Oooh, can't mention that!

:spank:

[ThomCat]

28. What is your point?

Stern campaigned for Obama, and Obama didn't campaign by frequently criticizing Stern. So we should EXPECT to see Stern in there frequently.

The problem is, Stern obviously isn't convincing Obama nearly as often as Tauzin, is he? Obama went from attacking Tauzin, to giving Tauzin everything his employers want at our expense, and at Stern's expense too.

You seem to think your "oooh" means something as if this is a game. Politics isn't about a popularity contest where you stand up for your favorite celebrity, much as you keep trying to turn it into that. This is about law and public policy that affects people's lives.

It would be nice if you took this half as serious as it deserves and got over your sick little cult of personality obsession.

[babylonsister]

55. OK. You tell me, since I'm so uninformed and you're so

intelligent, what did their conversations consist of? Ehhh? You can't?? That's right, because you don't have a clue. 'Stern obviously isn't convincing Obama...' How do you know what he is or isn't doing? Again, you don't. But let's throw this out there anyway, and see what sticks.

And you can go pack sand if you don't like my opinion or who I support. I don't criticize you for your constant criticisms, so leave me the hell alone.

[SpartanDem]

11. Not fair bringing balance and perspective

[slipslidingaway]

19. Stern endorsed the Jacob Hacker plan revealed back in

2007, did he win that he in talks.

:shrug:

We know what Pharma won by looking at the bill.

[ThomCat]

26. Which one of the two is having more luck shaping

Obama's policy ideas? :eyes:

Obama is openly anti-union.

He openly campaigns for shutting down public schools and replacing them with charter schools, getting rid of teachers unions in the process.

He made Union-busting a condition of helping Detroit, insisting that union contracts had to be broken and wages and benefits cut before the government would help auto makers, but he hasn't asked any other industry to void their contracts before getting help. Even with executives at financial institutions that Already took federal money he tiptoed around interfering with their contracts and finally decided to make sure there were loopholes to make sure THEY got their big bucks. But not union people.

He has very conspicuously NOT added his heavyweight power to efforts to make card-checks easier through his administrations rules.

Andy Stern wouldn't be doing his job if he wasn't doing his best to get in there as often as possible, given that he's the only lobbyist walking in through those doors that represent people who aren't millionaires, he's got a hell of a lot to fight for, and he's fighting almost alone. Unfortunately, Obama doesn't seem to be listening to Stern.

[Name removed]

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[cali]

10. that's not where I'm at. Yes, I'm unhappy with this kind of shit

but no, I don't believe in some simplistic "he's a corporate stooge" meme.

[Name removed]

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[grantcart]

15. thanks for the pizza

[Enrique]

3. here's the ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCRO0g9CfAw

[Dr.Phool]

7. And the guy who approved that message.......

Went to work for the Pharmaceutical Industry really cheap.

I don't know whether to
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

or
:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[DrDan]

6. if he had been visiting junior's WH, we at DU would have been up-in-arms

[phleshdef]

9. So what. Union leaders visited more and you only know this because of kept campaign promises.

[Name removed]

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[depakid]

14. In many- if not most western nationms, Tauzin would be in prison for corruption

[ShortnFiery]

21. The USA and Multi-National Ruling Elites MAKE the laws, therefore they NEVER take

the blame ... only reap the profits of seemingly endless Corporate Welfare.

Since the onset of American Crusade 2001 +, our beloved USA Corporate Citizens are always DoublePlusEqual

[bvar22]

16. It just keeps getting worse.

The DLC New Team
Progressives Need NOT Apply

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)


Wall Street IS Main Street.
War is Peace.
I did not campaign on a Public Option.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

17. Kick.

[slipslidingaway]

18. knr - 220 billion dollar loss on the this deal based on the Obama ...

HC plan and no televised negotiations of this deal.

:puke:

Could we save another 220 billion in addition to the 80 billion using VA prices...
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/slipslidingaway/110

Senator Carper Publicly Defends Secret PhRMA Deal In Exchange For Support Ads
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/slipslidingaway/112

[shadesofgray]

20. "the same old game-playing in Washington." Point that finger right back at yourself, Obama.

[frazzled]

22. Oops, deleted for repetition from post above

[ShortnFiery]

24. The point is: in a half-assed JUST society Billy Tauzin would be in jail. eom

[ProSense]

23. "11 times in Obama's first six months in office"

More rehashing of old news. CREW reported this back in November:

Former U.S. Representative Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, had two meetings with deputy chief of staff Jim Messina among 11 at the White House.

Trying to spin this as a new revelation from the latest release is bogus.

[slipslidingaway]

25. Does not matter - what was the deal! n/t

[ProSense]

27. That's the problem with people who aim to distort things:

they're always asking the same questions over and over when the answer is already known.

[cui bono]

30. Or else they're screaming in hysteria over Thom Hartmann.

Who is the most progressive talk show host out there but somehow someone actually posted some crazy rant about how he's out to ruin health care reform.

:rofl:

[flyarm]

31. then answer the question instead of being snarky..I happened to have been out of the country in NOV

and missed this so I thank the OP for posting it.

Some people were busy cooking for Thanksgiving in Nov and may have missed the story..or had holiday company..so what is your problem with it being repeated?

You can sure squeal about others but you never answer a question posed to you!

I was just in Calif over the holiday season and I saw a small article about it in the LA times either over this past weekend or right before the weekend..but it was a very short bit about it. So it is not such old news if the LATIMES just mentioned it in the past week.

[slipslidingaway]

32. Not aiming to distort, but this involves hundreds of billions of dollars...

in additional profits for the drug companies.

Each time this was brought up in the past you ignored the issue, so what exactly was the deal.

No negotiating for drug prices by Medicare and no importation of drugs in the HC bill, in return they would run ads for the bill.

Great deal for all the boomers and Medicare!

:(

[paulk]

33. you're the one aiming to distort

does it matter that it's old news?

old or not, this is a damning indictment of the Obama administration, your attempts to belittle notwithstanding.

what is the "answer", btw?

That Obama worked hand in glove with a guy he derided as a sign of DC/lobbyist corruption in a campaign ad?

[ProSense]

36. "does it matter that it's old news? "

Not if you want to act shocked.

[paulk]

37. a typically empty reply

So, are you saying that we shouldn't be "shocked" by how craven the Obama administration has been in selling itself (and the rest of us) out to the likes of Big Pharma? That it's all just business as usual, "reality", or, to cop one of your recent favorites, "bitterness"?

How can you defend this sort of thing? Do you really believe that accepting/condoning/promoting all things this admin does helps us get what we want from this government? Or is it just a constantly shifting field of play, where one day you're for a public option and the next day you're not? Do you have any political positions of your own?

[ProSense]

38. "So, are you saying that we shouldn't be 'shocked'"

You can be whatever you want to. It's not a secret that Tauzin went to the White House.

[paulk]

43. more emptiness

from the hollow one

[slipslidingaway]

40. been there before :) n/t

[Captain Hilts]

29. It really is sickening. nt

[RepublicanElephant]

34. tauzin came to see rahm. nt

[Undercurrent]

35. Just an FYI:

Of these White House visits, a few were "with" the President. "With" means in the same room.

Tauzin was "with" the President for the signing of S-Chip in the Eastroom, the ABC Townhall in the Eastroom, another bill signing in the East Wing, another event in the Eastroom, and one of the big Health Care Meetings in the Roosevelt Room. (Yes, lobbyists were present at those meetings. We've known that. The attendee lists were not secret.)

[slipslidingaway]

39. But Obama announced the 80 billion dollar deal, 300 billion is mentioned...

in his HC plan, Tauzin got a good deal IMO, Medicare not so much.

:(

From page 5 of 9
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

"...Allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices. The 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug
Improvement and Modernization Act bans the government from negotiating down the prices of
prescription drugs, even though the Department of Veterans Affairs’ negotiation of prescription drug prices with drug companies has garnered significant savings for taxpayers.32 Barack Obama and Joe Biden will repeal the ban on direct negotiation with drug companies and use the resulting savings, which could be as high as $30 billion,33 to further invest in improving health care coverage and quality..."

[phleshdef]

41. Thank you. So many people knee jerk react to the words "lobbyist" and "Whitehouse" and really have..

...no clue as to whether it means anything or not.

[paulk]

44. well, sometimes two plus two really does equal four

you know, like when Obama cuts a backroom deal with Big Pharma and Tauzin shows up in the WH logs eleven times.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that there might be a connection...

[zulchzulu]

42. The party crashers went to the White House to have an orgy

Some people say...


:crazy:

So do all guests at the White House "get what they want"?

[Romulox]

45. If what they want is mandatory private insurance with no cost controls, then yep.

They got EVERYTHING they wanted. :hi:

[mmonk]

46. That's all one needs to know concerning what kind of legislation

we are getting. Rotten to the core.

[uponit7771]

47. *******MORE MISLEADING ANTI OBAMA DRIBLE******: few of those visits were WITH Obama

[mmonk]

48. So who were they with? Was he there to play chess or backgammon?

Was he just in the neighborhood?

[uponit7771]

49. Don't care the article and the OP are misleading. It's more anti Obama DU Drible...

...and it's beyond just a few loud posters around here.

[mmonk]

50. So are you saying he wasn't really there or that he didn't meet

with anyone in the administration when he was there?

[uponit7771]

51. I'm saying the OP and article are misleading, I'm not going to focus on WHO he was there to talk to

...just the fact that I'm sick and tired of the misleading anti Obama post that are allowed here and I'm going to call them out.

Also, it doesn't mention the leader of the SEIU has meat more times than anyone with the white house...

The factless, half truth telling anti Obama attitude that's allowed to persist at GDP is gob smacking

[mmonk]

52. I do not see it as factless. Seems pertinent.

I usually don't post much in GDP myself. As far as misleading, it should raise some flags because if Tauzen had any influence, it wasn't necessarily in the public's interest since he doesn't lobby for the public interest. But I think we know the mechanics of the deal that was struck in general.

[uponit7771]

53. You forget the "half truth" part I posted, it's half truth or a damn lie to say Obama met with this

...person or to even imply it.

[mmonk]

54. I see no reason to argue with you.

All I know what I see and hear. Your position appears to be anything that does not look good and is posted is anti Obama and dishonest. You are entitled to that position but not everyone may agree.