Daschle Got Millions Lobbying Health Biz

While Obama castigates Wall Street executives for feeding at the trough, he has already lined up his band of tax evaders and lobbyists to help him gorge at the political trough.  Obama has disproven the old saying that "to the victor go the spoils."  More appropriate is "from the victor comes the spoiling."

This nation is on the verge of witnessing a stripping of wealth on behalf of the special interests that only occurred recently in history... when the former Soviet Union collapsed and its leaders and KGB operatives suddenly became "owners" of vast resources and heads of new "companies."

If you thought that the bone thrown to ACORN was outrageous, wait until you see what comes out of the stimulus package.

Via Sweetness and Light:

Daschle Got Millions Lobbying Health Biz

Some honest to goodness investigative reporting from Politico:

Daschle made $5m; health groups paid $220k

Daschle made $5m in last 2 years

By: Kenneth P. Vogel 
January 30, 2009

Tom Daschle, under fire for not paying taxes, made nearly $5.3 million in the last two years, records released Friday show.

Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader who President Obama has tapped to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system, was paid $220,000 to give speeches to outfits that have a vested interest in the result the work he would do once confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services…

For instance, the Health Industry Distributors Association plunked down $14,000 to land the former Senate Democratic Leader in March 2008. The association, which represents medical products distributors, boasts on its website that Daschle met with it after he was nominated to discuss “the impact an Obama administration will have on the industry.”

This week, the group began openly lobbying him, sending him a letter urging him to rescind a rule requiring competitive bidding of Medicare contracts

Another organization, America’s Health Insurance Plans, paid $20,000 for a Daschle speaking appearance in February 2007. It represents health insurance companies, which under Obama’s plan would be barred from denying coverage on the basis of health or age.

There was a $12,000 talk to GE Healthcare in August, a $20,000 lecture in January to Premier, Inc., a health care consulting firm, and a pair of $18,000 speeches this year to different hospital systems, among other paid appearances before healthcare groups.

The speaking fees were detailed in a financial disclosure statement released Friday, which showed that Daschle pulled down a total of more than $500,000 from the speaking circuit in the last two years, and $5.3 million in overall income.

That includes more than $2 million in consulting fees from InterMedia Advisors, a private equity firm…

He also became an adviser to the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird, which paid him $2.1 million in wages last year and also provided him a 401k and profit sharing plan worth between $100,000 and $250,000, according to the report.

In his three years at the firm, it’s earned more than $16 million lobbying on behalf of some of the health care industry’s most powerful interests before the department he’s in line to lead. Though Daschle, himself, did not register to lobby for the firm, he has advised the firm’s clients on health care issues, according to the firm’s website.

His disclosure indicates he provided “policy advice” to such clients as United Health, AT&T and the politically connected consulting shop Glover Park Group.

After leaving the Senate, Daschle also landed a host of lucrative board spots, including with the energy giant BP Corporation, which paid him $250,000 in fees, developer CB Richard Ellis, which paid $121,000, and ethanol processor Mascoma Corporation, which paid him $75,000, according to the disclosure.

It shows that Daschle has hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks and options from CB Richard Ellis and Mascoma, though he indicated he forfeited his unvested stock options and wrote that “if confirmed, I will divest my vested stock options with CB Richard Ellis.”

He reported owning homes worth as much as $250,000 each in Aberdeen, S.D. and Altus, Okla. with his wife, a high-powered lobbyist for Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz…

Funny how all of this kind of news always comes out on the weekends, isn’t it?

Of course it really should be no surprise, coming from Mr. Daschle, who is as sleazy as they come.

But what does Mr. Daschle know about anything that would justify his receiving millions of dollars in “consulting fees”?

Aren’t these the kinds of excessive remunerations that Mr. Obama has so publically denounced of late?

And hasn’t the Anointed One also denounced lobbyists and declared he would have nothing to do with them in his administration?

Moreover, why does Mr. Daschle even want another government job? Hasn’t he stolen enough?

Shouldn’t there be some limits?