Fmr. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was originally nominated to be President Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services and the head of his White House health care reform committee. Daschle was touted as the ultimate nominee. A fmr. Senate leader who has friends on Capital Hill and knows how to move legislation, a health care guru informed so much about health care he authored an entire book on the subject, and Daschle is close to health care companies whom will need to be brought on board to some degree in order to pass reform. But then the perfect nominee was undone by his failure to pay $100,000 in taxes for his personal chauffeur.

Obama replaced Daschle with two appointments for the Secretary and the committee position, but Daschle has continued to stay in contact with the White House while going back to work for the health insurance lobby.

Recent days have seen the Obama administration slowly back away from the
“public option” that the administration once claimed was vital for lowering health care costs by inducing government “competition.” This isn’t true, of course, since a government option would eventually destroy private competition because the state does not have to pay taxes, abide by regulations and can subsidize itself. A government option, if a mandate is present, would eventually force all Americans into state-run health care with rationing, declining quality and waiting lines and higher taxes to find the new entitlement program.

Nonetheless, that was what the Obama administration made its key reform for health care. But now the administration has slowly backed off declaring the public option a mere means toward the end of lower cost and if lower cost can be achieved without the public option then that is fine. Liberals have not taken kindly to Obama’s new prescription. I welcome the White House’s reversal, but this post isn’t about what the White House should do to lower cost (and they will not be lowering cost with their new plan), but about how policy is often made in Washington: behind closed doors by lobbyists.

Daschle, as noted, has gone back to work for the insurance lobby all the while still advising the White House. The New York Times recently reported:

But these days it often seems as if Mr. Daschle never left the picture. With unrivaled ties on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, he talks constantly with top White House advisers, many of whom previously worked for him.

He still speaks frequently to the president, who met with him as recently as Friday morning in the Oval Office. And he remains a highly paid policy adviser to hospital, drug, pharmaceutical and other health care industry clients of Alston & Bird, the law and lobbying firm.

So let’s see. A prominent adviser to the White House advising on health care reform while being paid by clients that oppose a public option. I wonder what affect that will have?:

Now the White House and Senate Democratic leaders appear to be moving toward a blueprint for overhauling the health system, centered on nonprofit insurance cooperatives, that Mr. Daschle began promoting two months ago as a politically feasible alternative to a more muscular government-run insurance plan.

It is an idea that happens to dovetail with the interests of many Alston & Bird clients, like the insurance giant UnitedHealth and the Tennessee Hospital Association.

Yes, there is no lobbying on behalf of clients by Daschle. The Times writes as if Daschle is just innocently advising the White House, but it so “happens” to be that his advise “dovetail[s]” with the policies favored by his clients. I am sure this is all coincidence.

Obama promised a break with the old Washington ways of doing business whereby lobbyists have unrivaled access and strongly influence policy. I never bought it, maybe some liberals will now wake up from their Obamania delusions.

That’s wonderful phraseology — the co-op plan which Daschle is advocating to Obama and which the White House and Senate Democrats are now leaning towards “happens to dovetail with the interests of many [Daschle’s] clients, like the insurance giant UnitedHealth and the Tennessee Hospital Association.” What a weird coincidence; it’s like those companies won a Bingo game (can you believe our number happened to get called?!? what awesome luck we have).