Did Tom Dachle sell out?

[kristopher]

"The firm that houses two of the three former Senate majority leaders who proposed a comprehensive health care compromise plan on Wednesday has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobby on behalf of key players in the health care industry. In addition, the company that presented those findings, the Bipartisan Policy Center, counts as a major fundraiser one of the country's largest pharmaceutical companies.

Former Sens. Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and Howard Baker joined forces this week to put out a health care plan 15 months in the making. The three political gray beards, who co-founded the Bipartisan Policy Center, called for an approach to reform that included state-operated public insurance options as well as individual and employer mandates for coverage. Their proposal was pitched as a bi-partisan effort at solving one of the most complex legislative issue facing the nation.

Not everyone was ready to take out the anointing oils. Opponents of the proposal and good government groups are questioning the ties the plan's authors and organizations have to groups with direct financial interests in the health care debate.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, for instance, lists the pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough as a "substantial contributor" on its 990 form. How much money the company contributed is not listed...."

Lots more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/18/daschle-urges-obama-to-dr_n_217329.html

The creep.

[JeffR]

1. Years and years ago. Is this somehow news?

[kickysnana]

2. Yes, 9 years ago n/t

[GreenTea]

3. Of course he has - The cocksucker Dachle is bought & paid for by the insurance indutry - he's there

just as Bush is out there today to stop and deflate any thoughts and hopes of a public option, republicans and insurance companies hate competition....for those billionaire insurance CEOs who do NOT want any kind of public option and don't want us to have a foot in the door because it would spell the end in time to their thievery and monopoly....we haven't even seen anything yet....and the Dems are fucking already quivering spineless fuckers & paid off bastards...

Spend your money on action committees doing something NOW and get out there and fight for a public option.

Republicans are fighting to keep insurance companies for profit only, as our only option -

Public option would mean competition for the insurance corporations, republicans hate competition, they prefer a rigged game, collusion, no competition means sky high profits because there's no place else for one to go...the insurance companies, like all corporations & monopolies set prices among themselves to keep profits as high as possible, fuck sick people, it's about PROFITS!

It's should be a safety net for people who get sick and the insurance companies and republicans think it should be about profits & privatization....to charge outrageous fees, throw people off policies if the hospital bill is too large and not accepting people if they are sick, that's the republican plan health care, corporate profit....

"For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection," he added.

"Nationally, a quarter of firms cancel coverage immediately when an employee suffers a disabling illness; another quarter do so within a year," the report reads.

We are fucked again if we get no public option, right back where we stated at the mercy of the insurance companies...out not for your well being, but for profits and corporations always cut corners and screw us at every turn to profit ever more.

[Jim Sagle]

4. The question generously assumes he was ever on our side to begin with.

So no, he didn't sell out, he was already gone.