Lobbyist Healthcare Talking Points Non-Scandal Shows Reform is Too Much, Too Fast
By Mary Kate Cary, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Saturday, the New York Times reported on its website that in the healthcare reform debate, "Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world's largest biotechnology companies."
The outrage on the talk shows began immediately. This morning, MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan kept a running tally of the number of lawmakers caught using the Genentech talking points on a big billboard-type graphic—22 Republicans and 20 Democrats.
While the media was professing shock at this, the working stiffs I know in town were privately laughing. That's because, as an unnamed lobbyist told the New York Times, "This happens all the time. There was nothing nefarious about it." He or she is right. Working as a speechwriter here in Washington, D.C., I can't tell you how many times I've been hired to write similar press statements, opinion editorials, and talking points on any number of issues. That's what lobbyists and public relations firms here in Washington do—they try to get lawmakers to agree with their clients' positions, and they try to get them to say so publicly. The ones who drafted the statements were just doing their jobs.
The problem is not that lobbyists wrote press statements and talking points. The problem is that lawmakers—and really, their staffs—did not reword the boilerplate language and make it their own. The lobbyists were doing their jobs; the lawmakers weren't.
So was it just laziness? Or are members and their staffs too overworked to drill down and do it right? Maybe it's both: Maybe they're too overwhelmed to understand healthcare reform without help from the outside, and so they took the easy way out. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing is going on with the economic bailouts, cap-and-trade, and any number of issues we're dealing with these days. Life is complicated lately in Washington, and I'm sure it is overwhelming at times.
No matter what the reason, the fact is that the people in the center of all this—the ones who have to write the legislation and vote on it—are relying word-for-word on what others tell them instead of analyzing the issue for themselves. That says something.
Maybe what it says is that this is all too much, too soon, too fast.
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Reader Comments
Now you want to be "a good citizen"?
To anybody that says mantra "you are just cold I would glady pay a little extra so people can have health care" you are a self rightous pompous hypocrite A-hole! Why havenb't you been donating to charities all along? There have been orginazations and local sponsers for people needing help to pay thier medical bills for years now. Why is it that now you want to do it hen it might be mandated? Is it so nobody can tell you didn't do anything earlier when you had a chance to save a child or mother of 4. Why is it now that you all of sudden have compasion for the uninsured? Is it because you are simply ignorant to the attrocities of the health care industry? Is it because they make a profit? Is it because you are easily swayed into feeling compassion for people undeserving of it? Really I want to know, why now do you feel better than me because I don't want this current Bill for our Health Care Reform Package?
Socializing?
Sure we have tax-payer funded roads, libraries, schools, garbage pick-up & more things of that nature. I am not saying all socialized programs are bad, but I refuse to say that all Socialized programs are good. I get the feeling that people think all programs are good or have been good. The problem is The Post Office is laying people off left and right. If our hospitals turn into the 'polite and curtious' service I receive at the DMV everything will be ok, huh? Welfare was designed as a temporary solution till you were able to get back on your feet. However, we now have families who have been receiving Welfare well into thier 3rd and 4th Generation. The fact that our government either cannot detect fraud or just refuse that people are deceitful is enough for me not to trust our government to run the health care industry, Hell they couldn't even regulate it. Here's another problem I have with the current path to Health-Care Reform. The whole reason for needing reform in the first place was to curb the rising costs. Well, why aren't they doing anything about that in the Bill. If Public Option is going to bring down the cost Health Care alone by breeding competition, then why not start by letting insurance companies compete across state lines? There's your competition right there.
Personally, to me, because no where in the bill that I see to I see anything that directly relates to reason costs are so high. Like TORT Reform, No one can deny how much waste (unneccesary tests, high cost of malpractice insurance) is evident there. Our Illegal Immagration problem, Yet again our current law of providing treatment to anybody and everybody who shows up there, is a huge factor in the rising costs (By the way I am in no way saying that law is a bad idea, just saying coupled with unforced immagration laws it is a huge factor in the escalting costs.) Since these issues aren't being pressed and the only one that is, is a Public-Option leaves me a little weary of thier (The Current Administration) intentions. Common Sense tells me they want to control it across the board, or lobbying behind the scenes is controlling this entire show. Either way I would still prefer to modify the existing system first before I agree to jump on board with Disasterous Bill.
To anyone who thinks that this is a Democrat or a Republican Issue hear this. YOU ARE THE BIGGEST PART OF THIS PROBLEM! people need to start doing thier own research instead of waiting to hear what some talk show host says (This means you too Maddow/Olberman Follwers, not just Back and Hannity Followers) Until people start to think about the situation as it suits them personally (not about the supposed gigantic number of uninsured, but them personally) we will continue to fight amongst ourselves.
Whoa, peace, R.L.!
I thought we were in the same camp. I appreciate the "kid", but I'll be 48 in December. Look, I hate to split hairs here, but I've consulted the rule book, and I'm sorry, but you really can't use that analogy. Look it up. Hey, even if you were referring to the "health care system" in your analogy, you don't have access to ANY health care system, as you have been denied care, which, by the way, I think is terrible. (See? I'm on your side.) So your comparison of swapping your existing health program/car (which, by your own admission, you do not have) for a public option/car (again, you choose it or not) is simply not analogous. Your reasoning is inherently faulty. Sorry. This doesn't mean you can't use any analogy though. You could use an analogy of, say, someone dying of snakebite but refusing to take the antidote because you heard a radio pundit say that the person offering it to you was a socialist. And that the snake-bit person goes around posting on websites urging other people bitten by poisonous snakes to not take antidotes because who knows what the side effects would be, including maybe turning into a socialist. That would work. And it would totally fit your situation. Try it.
Uh... you're saying I'm confusing? "But maybe you believe Fox News cloned Obama and Pelosi and then forced the clones to do their bidding." Sorry, but I don't think US News has a Non-Sequitor of The Week award. But thanks for playing.
But boy, you called it! If we become like every other first-world nation and start providing health care to every citizen, then the grim specter of Socialism would appear, and boom!, before you know it, we'd have socialized mail service, and socialized public libraries and socialized schools and an armed forces and garbage collection and all KINDS of socialized programs and services all OVER the country. Well, I'm with you, no thanks, Comrade! Oh, wait.
And yeah, surprise! While you may like to talk about and practice "rubbing" in other contexts, you paraphrase Shakespeare with your "there's the rub" line. That's his line and there is nothing you can do about it. But you say you didn't know, and I take your word as a gentleman. All this time you've been quoting Shakespeare without having the first notion that you were doing it. That's okay, Shakespeare coined tons of new words and phrases and apparently you had one in your pocket for years without knowing it! Bonus, right? Be smart, though, and take credit for knowing the source material-- makes you look educated, and chicks dig it.
I hope you can get health care, R.L., since the insurance companies won't let you have it. Remember, if health care reform passes, they will no longer be able to refuse to ensure you. Or you can turn down the public option, if you want, and choose to pay more with a private insurer. But you'll have a choice. And right now? By your own admission, you have no choice at all. Disagree? Then attack my arguments. Like grown-ups do. Kid.
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