Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, was one of nearly four dozen Republican and Democratic House members who submitted statements into the official record about health care reform that were written, in whole or in part, by lobbyists for a biotechnology company, the New York Times reported. Jenkins and Reps. K. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, and Lee Terry, R-Neb., used nearly identical words in criticizing the health care reform bill, but each also said: “I do believe the sections relating to the creation of a market for biosimilar products is one area of the bill that strikes the appropriate balance in providing lower cost options.” So not only do lobbyists help write bills, they help write what lawmakers say.
UPDATE: Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., also submitted text written by lobbyists.
19 Comments
And this is different from Daschle and his lobbying group practically living in the White House and Senate how?
In House, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists’
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/politics/15health.html
Sad, but true. Of Both sides of the aisle. Pathetic
Lynn (The Great White Dope) Jenkins is an embarrassment for the 2nd District. Which, after years of Jim Ryun’s tenure, says quite a lot.
Great our reps are using form letters written by the lobbyist, why not they write their bills for them and write their checks for them.
Time for the “I didn’t read it, I just signed it” defense.
Lobbyists entangled with politics?
Ya don’t say!
This should be front page news!
Lynn Jenkins took pro-choice campaign cash from WISH List, an organization that supports pro-choice Republican women in Congress. Then she voted for the anti-choice Stupak amendment. Odd, from a woman who has always claimed to be pro-choice, to be voting for a decidely anti-choice bill. Could it be that Lynn is a liar?
I think that if you can sign your name, you’re qualified to be a ks. rep.
Phantom
Posted November 17, 2009 at 2:06 pm | Permalink
I think that if you can sign your name, you’re qualified to be a ks. rep.
=====================================
Sadly, I think that qualifies you for any state.
Phantom,
I should add that in order to become a State “Representative”, one must remove their soul, place it on their driveway and set it on fire…Then put the ashes in a blender for 2 hours.
Write speeches for the GOP.
Write checks for the DNC.
Poor Lynn, she probably thought she was being given special help and guidance, only to find out she was turned into a corporate SPAM machine…
How embarrassing.
Monkeyhawk, if your golden girl Boyda was so great, how come she was a one-term loser? Boyda would have done nothing more than worshipped at the altar of Barack HUSSEIN Obama, err, Barry Soetoro.
“ICTisInferior” asserts –
“Boyda would have done nothing more than worshipped at the altar of Barack HUSSEIN Obama….”
It’s amazing how you think you can predict reality in an alternate universe.
One thing Boyda would not have done was tell that woman in Ottawa she’d get her staff together and help the single-mother get health coverage for her two-year-old then refuse so return phone calls.
One thing Boyda would not have said is “America needs a Great White Hope.”
One thing Boyda never did was sign her name to a lobbyist-written position paper.
One thing Boyda did do is represent the best interests of the 2nd District of Kansas. Jenkins, not so much.
During the summer congressional recess Jenkins announced a listening tour of towns in her district. After the Ottawa fiasco Jenkins simply sent staffers and interns to other town meetings.
I do not want any additional health care from the Government. The expense is overwhelming. Good for Jenkins if she had help.
Of course, the lobbyist wrote the Jenkins’ statement.
The corporate masters aren’t going to trust their puppets to say what they want said.
What’s the difference between Jenkins and a street wh*re?
The street wh*re is cheaper and only hurts herself.
Jenkins hurts all of us.
George–
Thanks for refusing to accept Medicare.
It takes real guts for you to stand on your convictions like that.
True, you’ll die sooner than you have to . . . but thank God, Lenin didn’t win, right, big guy?
Thanks, george, your sacrifice will help someone more deserving….
Personally I think any legislator who reads someone else’s speech or statement as his/her own without giving due credit before the reading is guilty of plagiarism. I really don’t care what the lobbyists or speechwriters are paid to think, but I do want to know that our politicians actually do think, and making them do their own writing is the only way we the people who voted them into office have of knowing whether we elect politicians who create policy of just lip-synch it.