Millions for Tauzin

WASHINGTON'S revolving door -- in which public service reaps private gain -- has long been criticized as unethical. In certain cases, it also produces bad policies or expenditures that cost the taxpayer.

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Rarely have both been so true as this week, when Representative Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, a Republican and the key author of the 2003 Medicare drug law widely seen as being far too generous to the drug companies, announced that in January he will become president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry's top lobbying group.

Tauzin said his first goal will be to improve the image of the drug industry, which he acknowledged is not trusted by consumers. Far from improving the image either of the industry or of Congress, his move further sullies both.

The drug companies look like they are paying off a factotum (and handsomely -- estimates of Tauzin's new salary range close to $2 million annually) for services already rendered and are hiring a person for whom the public interest comes second, at best. And Tauzin leaves his colleagues in the House besmirched with the sense that they pay far more attention to big corporations than to their constituents.

It is true that one of the most controversial aspects of last year's Medicare bill -- prohibiting the government from negotiating drug prices -- was introduced by Democrats, but this was at a time when the program would have been operated by Medicare, which would often have enough clout to dictate prices. Republicans, with Tauzin a key player, rewrote the bill so it will be administered by private insurance companies with far less bargaining power and the drug industry cheered. Even outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson decried the giveaway to the drug companies.

Tauzin's move also makes a mockery of the toothless ethics regulations in Congress, such as the one that supposedly prevents members from lobbying for a year. As written, it does not prevent someone from running a lobbying group and telling others how to lobby.

If the House had an ounce of common sense, it would tighten its ethics rules substantially and move early next year to amend the Medicare drug law so it treats the nation's seniors as well as its drug barons.

But there is little reason for optimism. Congress blinks as Tauzin cashes in, along with another Republican member of his committee, James Greenwood of Pennsylvania, who is to be named president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Meanwhile the House leadership is working to weaken its own Ethics Committee.

Perhaps Speaker Dennis Hastert will take a cue from the drug companies and hire someone to improve the House's image.