http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/01/28/waxman-and-gop-make-bipartisan-request-for-info-from-white-house-on-phrma-deal/"From the President’s State of the Union speech:
To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve..."
...It’s ironic this statement comes on the same day that Henry Waxman’s Energy and Commerce Committee makes a bipartisan request for information meetings that the White House held during May and June of 2009 with PhRMA, the hospitals, the AMA and others when the secret deals memorialized in the Senate bill were cut.
...Lack of transparency with regard to deals cut in secret is one of the factors that has made the public mistrust the administration’s health care bill. Release of those records could do much to allay many fears."
Waxman Requests Information on White House Deals
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/waxman-requests-information-on-white-house-deals/"The Obama administration’s health care proposals are taking fire from all sides. A powerful House Democrat on Wednesday lent some support to a Republican effort to press the White House for documents and details about any deals it made with drug companies, hospitals, labor unions and other interest groups during its behind-the-scenes negotiations over the proposed health care overhaul.
...In some ways, Mr. Waxman’s support for the letter also helps defuse the Republicans’ request. Representative Michael Burgess, Republican of Texas, had introduced a formal resolution making a broader petition for information. Praising the Obama administration’s general efforts toward openness, Mr. Waxman called the original Republican resolution too intrusive. The narrower joint letter is expected to supersede it. But Mr. Waxman, like many House Democrats, has also been a critic of some of the White House’s health care deals. In particular, Mr. Waxman has vowed to oppose a deal with drug industry lobbyists that secured their political support in exchange for guaranteeing that the overhaul would not harm their long-term profits.
In the security of its agreement, the drug industry spent millions advertising in support of the overhaul. But the White House and Senate Finance Committee reached the deal with the drug lobbyists without the involvement of House Democrats, who later surprised to learn about in the press."
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