Statements by many lawmakers ghostwritten by lobbyists working for Genentech

My favorite part:

Asked about the Congressional statements, a lobbyist close to Genentech said: "This happens all the time. There was nothing nefarious about it."

Not sure the second statement necessarily follows the first..

You can't get the money out of politics before you get the politics out of money. http://change-congress.org/

I would think that this is more common, and they only got caught because it was so egregious this time. Someone should take plagiarism detection software and turn it on the congressional record. Then we'll know for sure.

Of course, this kind of thing only happens because the government is insufficiently powerful. Obviously, if we were to make the feds responsible for trillions of dollars worth of healthcare spending, Genentech's lobbyists would respectfully decline to meddle in the process. It's just another illustration of the dangers of deregulation and free markets.

well duh...these things happen all the time. Just look at the guy who wrote the anti-net neutrality bill to control the internet, you know...John McCain? The guy who said he needed help just to check his email.

What is the incentive for the members of Congress to insert this into the record verbatim? I don't see any way this makes them look better than not saying anything would have. If anything, it makes them look corrupt and incompetent. (Do they get "stuff" from lobbyists for doing this?)

s/Statements/laws/;

s/Genentech/every company and moneyed interest group ever/;

The health care bill was so long that none of the lawmakers who voted on it had time to read it all. Do the math. This congress is one of the most corrupt in quite some time.

This looks like an example of poor staff work on the part of Congressional staff.

Not that I'm forgiving of any of it. The Congressional Record has long been a swamp of total crap. Stuff appears there that was never spoken -- a nice tactic is to vote against a bill, then insert language in the CR saying how you support the bill's goals. When campaign time rolls around, you can either take credit for the vote or run the blurbs from the CR depending on how the electorate is feeling.

I won't get political, but I will note that the approval ratings of Congress has continually gotten worse and worse over the last ten or twenty years. I can't help but think this is tied to the fact that there's not as much turnover in Congress as there used to be (due to gerrymandering) Incumbents win their re-election bids something like 80% of the time. I guess if you keep seeing the same talking heads saying the same thing (or worse, drifting with the wind) then I'm sure it has to wear on you after a while.

EDIT: Looking at Gallup, it appears that the freefall has been most pronounced over the last 8 years, not 20. http://www.gallup.com/poll/123491/Approval-Congress-Falls-21...