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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (77537)	2/15/2010 10:19:05 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

Top Lobbyist for Drug Makers Resigning After Ill-Fated Health Deal With White House FOXNews.com Billy Tauzin, the head of the powerful trade association for drug manufacturers who struck an ill-fated backroom deal with the White House on health care reform last year, is stepping down. Tauzin's announcement Thursday night comes amid uncertainty over the fate of President Obama's proposed health care overhaul, which the drug association had backed in its deal with the White House and Senate Democrats to limit costs to the industry in the legislation. The deal became controversial after it was announced last year. The White House had sought to keep specifics of the deal private, but some were disclosed by Tauzin, the president and chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, in an apparent effort to ensure they were maintained. Tauzin said Thursday that he will step down June 30. Under last year's agreement, costs to the drug industry in the health overhaul legislation would have been limited to $80 billion over 10 years, much of that coming from helping close a prescription drug coverage gap in Medicare, the health insurance program for seniors. PhRMA was spending more than $100 million on TV ads in support of the health overhaul. But liberal lawmakers, particularly in the House, wanted the drug industry to pay much more in the legislation. The House version of the bill would have laid billions more in costs on the industry. The legislation now stands in limbo because of the election last month of a Republican to a Massachusetts Senate seat, which deprived Democrats of the filibuster-proof supermajority required for key procedural votes in the Senate. Tauzin, 66, a former congressman from Louisiana and a cancer survivor, said in a statement Thursday that when he steps down in the summer he will have completed the 5 1/2 years of service he agreed to when he took the job. He said he will continue to serve as a consultant for PhRMA. "As the first ever cancer patient to lead PhRMA as its CEO, I now believe it is time I move on and hand the mantle of leadership of this great organization to others as passionate as myself, and to explore the many other interests I would like to pursue in this special second-chance life that I have been given," he said. "My health is excellent and I look forward to exciting new challenges ahead." Tauzin was elected to the House as a Democrat in 1980 but switched parties, becoming a Republican in 1995. He rose to become chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee before announcing his retirement from the House in 2004 when suffering health problems. He took the job as head of PhRMA the following January. The Associated Press contributed to this report. foxnews.com