[CWATCHDOGCFR] How massive industry lobbying created the Medicare bill

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Congress Watchdog <CONGRESSWATCHDOG wrote:Wed, 23 Jun 2004

18:02:32 -0400

Congress Watchdog

[CWATCHDOGCFR] How massive industry lobbying created the Medicare bill

 

- our apologies for any duplicate postings -

 

To pass a Medicare bill which funneled billions of taxpayer dollars to the drug

and healthcare industry while providing only meager benefits to seniors, the

Bush Administration and its Congressional allies

* hid the true costs from Congress and the public

* bent the rules and strong armed lawmakers into passing the bill, and

* illegally used taxpayer funds to produce misleading advertising about the

legislation once passed.

 

How were they able to do all this?

 

Public Citizen's comprehensive new report, The Medicare Drug War, uncovers the

huge amounts of money that greased the wheels of this terrible piece of

legislation: $141 million was spent in 2003 alone by the drug industry and HMOs

to hire 952 lobbyists - a record number for the industries, and almost 10

lobbyists for every U.S. Senator. The report also documents the " revolving door "

through which individuals have moved back and forth between government jobs and

the drug industry, both before and after passage of the bill. Perhaps not

surprisingly, the report also reveals that more than 20 top executives from the

drug and healthcare industry are Pioneers and Rangers, the fundraisers who

bundle $100,000 and $200,000, respectively, for the Bush campaign.

 

To read the report, go to the Public Citizen homepage at

http://www.citizen.org/

 

You may also go directly to the press release at

http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1733

 

or the full report at

http://www.citizen.org/documents/Medicare_Drug_War%20_Report_2004.pdf

 

 

 

 

For more information about this, and the other issues Public Citizen works on,

please visit our website at www.citizen.org