The Revolving Door Claims Another Willing Public Official Turned Lobbyist

As Politico reported on Tuesday, the architect of Obamacare, Senator Max Baucus' health policy counsel Liz Fowler, has accepted a job as a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry. Not only did Fowler basically create Obamacare, but she was also put in charge by the White House of overseeing the law's implementation after it was passed. Before her gig on Capitol Hill and at the White House, Fowler was a lobbyist for health insurance giant Wellpoint. And despite a lot of good things in Obamacare like protection for Americans with pre-existing conditions, there's no doubt about it that the individual mandate, absent a public option, is a giant stimulus for the for-profit private health insurance industry. Obamacare was also a big giveaway to the big pharmaceutical industry, which defeated the importation of cheap drugs from Canada. Now for her services in protecting the pharmaceutical industry while crafting Obamacare, Liz Fowler is taking a nice cushy job with the pharmaceutical industry. This is how Washington works nowadays – quid pro quos for all policymakers if they want to make big bucks in the corporatocracy after they leave government. We need new laws to bolt tight Washington's revolving door.