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You may remember a story I posted earlier this year about Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) who was instrumental in passing the new Medicare prescription drug law and later resigned from his powerful position of chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee amid rumors of being courted by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and the Motion Picture Association of America.
After many denials to the contrary, the rumors were indeed true. Tauzin will give up his House seat Jan. 3 to become PhRMA president for some SEVEN TIMES the annual salary he earned as a Congressman ($158,000). As a committee chairman, Tauzin helped to write the law to provide outpatient prescription coverage under Medicare.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a senior Democrat on the committee Tauzin once headed, called the appearance of the appointment by PhRMA "terrible." One quote spoke volumes: "A chief architect of the Medicare prescription drug legislation is now going to represent the chief beneficiary of the bill. This will only reinforce the public's disillusionment with Congress."
The appointment drew criticism from consumer advocates, along with calls for prohibiting lawmakers from negotiating employment deals while in office and for extending the one-year ban on former members lobbying their old colleagues.
This is the type of moral corruption that people will not tolerate anymore and one of the reasons this site exists: To facilitate a transformation of this fatally flawed and corrupted paradigm.
This Web site was founded on the basic principle of providing the public with honest, comprehensive, and well-researched guidance on the best nutrition, medicine, emotional therapy and lifestyle choices that you can make to achieve total health and wellness. With more than 275,000 subscribers to my twice-weekly eHealthy News You Can Use, the number of people tuning out of the traditional, broken medical paradigm are growing daily.
Los Angeles Times December 16, 2004