In ethically-challenged Washington, conflict of interest has been reduced to the debate over whether to limit the usury rates of bank cards; it has little or nothing to do with the corrosive practice of staffing congressional offices with industry hacks undermining the integrity of the People's branch of government in favor of the monied interests. How do you put a wedge in this revolving door? What can we do to help?
There's nothing particularly special about Liz Fowler. She just happens to be low-hanging fruit. She was the top health advisor to Senator Max Baucus from 2001 to 2005, when she left to become VP of Public Policy for WellPoint, the largest health insurer in the country. When it looked like the Democrats would be holding the reins of power again, she returned to work for Baucus, whose chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee would be instrumental in crafting any reform of the health insurance industry. There she sat, like a mole in the daylight, feeding lines of the script from her old bosses and making sure any proposed language was analyzed thoroughly by industry insiders as the legislative sausage-making proceeded. Bill Moyers calls it a 'a leveraged buyout of democracy." Watch.
One of the most notorious examples of the damage one person can do (and remember, there are SIX health insurance lobbyists for EVERY member of Congress) is former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin who was the midwife for the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill, delivered to suit PhRMA's specifications to a T: force Medicare subscribers to have to choose from 40 different insurance providers, ensuring that no one company could acquire enough market share to negotiate lower drug prices the way the Veteran's Administration had been able to do. No sooner had he delivered the legislation, tied with a bow, than he left public office to become President and CEO of PhRMA, the pharmaceutical lobbying company, earning (allegedly) more than $2.5M a year.
The problem has been around since the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson wrote:
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the Laws of our country. (1816)
If only he and his compatriots had included a mechanism to address this democracy-destroying dynamic in our founding documents. Now, it seems like all we can do is pray for a direct asteroid hit on Washington, DC.