{"id":312920,"date":"2010-02-12T09:03:15","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T14:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/health\/2010\/02\/12\/wanted-ex-congressman-must-love-drugs-good-pay\/"},"modified":"2010-02-12T09:03:15","modified_gmt":"2010-02-12T14:03:15","slug":"wanted-ex-congressman-must-love-drugs-good-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/312920","title":{"rendered":"Wanted: Ex-Congressman. Must Love Drugs. Good Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tauzin\"Billy Tauzin — the former Louisiana congressman who stuck with the homespun phrases even as he pulled down $2 million<\/a> a year to represent the drug industry in DC — is stepping down as the head of PhRMA, the big trade group. <\/p>\n

The WSJ notes<\/a> that he was criticized “for his support of the White House’s now-teetering plan to overhaul health care.” <\/p>\n

Exhibit A is the letter John Boehner, the House Republican leader, sent last year to Tauzin, to complain about the $80 billion deal<\/a> the drug industry struck with the Democrats. Boehner accused the industry of cutting a deal with a “bully<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Late yesterday, PhRMA said Tauzin’s resignation is effective June 30, and a search for his successor will start immediately. The group’s statement included this quote from Tauzin:<\/p>\n

\n

\nIn January 2005, after a full year successfully battling a killer cancer, I was given a second chance at life, and appropriately chose to commit my next five years to the life-saving work of the people whose miracle medicines had just saved my own For the past five years, I have given my all to that effort at PhRMA, and believe we have made a significant difference together.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tauzin Flashback<\/strong>: Tauzin has a way with words. When the drug industry was coming under fire from Congress a few years ago, Tauzin got on a conference call with drug execs and told them<\/a>: “Your house is on fire and you’re still smoking in bed.” <\/p>\n

Photo: Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/img><\/a>
\n<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billy Tauzin — the former Louisiana congressman who stuck with the homespun phrases even as he pulled down $2 million a year to represent the drug industry in DC — is stepping down as the head of PhRMA, the big trade group. The WSJ notes that he was criticized “for his support of the White […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}