September 09 ,2009

If you're wondering why K Street saw drafts of Baucus's health care legislation before the White House, the answer is quite simple: K Street wrote the bill.

Literally.

As Emptywheel points out, Baucus's Senior Counsel is a woman named Elizabeth Fowler, and, as Politico has reported, "If you drew an organizational chart of major players in the Senate health care negotiations, Fowler would be the chief operating officer. As a senior aide to Baucus, she directs the Finance Committee health care staff, enforces deadlines on drafting bill language and coordinates with the White House and other lawmakers. She also troubleshoots, identifying policy and political problems before they ripen."

But as Emptywheel points out, Politico has omitted a crucial part of Fowler's resume. Namely,that she has been serving as Vice-President of Public Policy and External Affairs for Wellpoint, Inc., the enormous health care insurance giant that is the largest component of Blue Cross, Blue Shield.

In other words, to the extent Fowler plays a key role in putting together the health care bill, K Street lobbyists are quite literally helping draft it.