News reports indicate that Dan Ziegler, a Washington lobbyist counting among his clients PhRMA, Pfizer, Merck, Sanofi, Eli Lilly and Amgen, will join House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office as policy director.
Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that works on behalf of public interest in Washington previously published a report detailing the scope and magnitude of Pharma’s presence on Capitol Hill.
In response to Rep. Johnson’s recent hiring of Dan Ziegler, Public Citizen president Robert Weissman issued the following statement:
“It turns out that one of the biggest winners from the House Republican meltdown is Big Pharma. At a time when 90 percent of Americans are clamoring for more aggressive measures to clamp down on Big Pharma price gouging, the industry has managed to place one of their lobbyists as policy director in the Speaker’s office.
“This may be the greatest gift to Big Pharma since Rep. Billy Tauzin barred Medicare from negotiating drug prices – and then went on to head the industry trade association.
“Should the House fail to take up popular bipartisan drug pricing reforms that are anticipated to advance through the Senate, we will know a reason why, and know at least one person who likely is siding with industry to preserve drug corporation monopoly abuses and profiteering.
“This appointment puts to lie Speaker Johnson’s claim that he is a big believer in ‘free markets.’ He has just placed in charge of his policy shop a lobbyist for an industry whose business model is based on abusing monopoly power.
“Speaker Johnson’s hire of pharma lobbyist Dan Ziegler is yet another example of how the revolving door enables corporations to derail the policies that Americans overwhelmingly favor, and underscores the need for reform to address the revolving door.
“Ziegler’s resume disqualifies him for the job. Speaker Johnson immediately should reverse this hire and find a policy director free of Big Pharma or corporate conflicts.”
Read more about Public Citizen here.
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I agree this isn’t a good look but speaker Johnson has vowed to prayerfully work on bringing both sides together so we will have to watch and hold him to account thru phone calls to our state reps .
But I for one will be praying for him daily that God will strengthen him give him wisdom and discernment ?
Malinda Hvojnik,
John Rappoport warns :
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2022/06/07/new-podcast-mass-shootings-and-the-psychiatric-drug-connection/
-Rick
You’re in denial.
We really don’t need both sides coming together. Coming together means lowering our standard of freedom, and the difference between life and death – when it comes to Big Pharma. As you should know, they do not want to reveal their vax studies – which we forced them to provide – and now it is known that they were dangerous, and sold it anyway.
Speaker Johnson is an instant replay of Paul Ryan. Definitely not a positive.
Did he personally hire the lobbyist, or one of his minions?
I guess this could go one of two ways. Johnson hired Dan to get inside scoop about how big pharma likes to lobby, or Johnson is hoping for some big pharma donations down the line. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if Dan Ziegler is still working for big pharma.
80:20 rule – you can’t always get everything what you want. This I don’t want.
So this bears watching, considering the massive grip the medical-industrial complex has on our country and the federal budget.
That could be good or bad, depending the reasoning. If it is for the benefit of the American people, that is good. He would know the ins and outs of the industry and be in a good position to get around their crap.
Remember:
Almost all addiction couselors are former addicts.
It is a testiment to the readers of Sharyl that each comment here is skeptical but optimistic. Taking a wait and see, but prepared to admonish the Speaker should this go wrong is the right approach in my view.
Unlike McCarthy who had a history of saying one thing then backtracking, Mike Johnson has not yet shown such to be part of his character.
Like the others, I will be watching and will hold Speaker Johnson accountable.
no, it means that GOP supporters are delusional wishing against all reality for several decades that their man is not corrupt like the rest.
I’m glad to see the different opinions here. I too am hopeful that it will be a good hire. Like it or not, the Republicans need money to fight the Democrats (who I used to think were just misinformed but since Obama, I think have turned evil). But I’m not all in against Pharma either. I firmly believe they CAN do bad things, and the VAX is a big example, along with overmedicating children. But they can do great things too. I don’t want price controls on meds (which is anti-capitalism) if it means no more new solutions to disease.
To turn against the new Speaker so quickly for such a hire is not just counterproductive, it shows a distain for any solution to the Washington problems we are all facing today.
Any reply from Johnson?