How a Biller Becomes A Lobbyist
"Consider, for example, the curious case of Liz Fowler. Fowler went from being the chief counsel for the Senate Finance Committee to being the vice president for public policy and external affairs at health insurer WellPoint in 2006. But two years later, Fowler returned to the Hill as an aide to Democratic Sen. Max Baucus (Mont.), where she—guess what?—made sure that WellPoint's interests were favored during the health care reform debate.
"Naturally, she then moved on to a position in the White House, where her job description became 'to 'oversee' the implementation of the law.'
"I'm sure that Fowler took a substantial pay cut to do both of those jobs, as well, but I'm not worried about her livelihood, because if there's one thing that Max Baucus is very, very good at, it's getting his former staffers high-paying jobs in the health care lobbying industry."
Maybe we should pay government workers enough to compete with salaries offered by the private sector so we wouldn't have these conflicts of interest and we could just have the best and brightest representing our interests exclusively!
Or, y'know, we could start demanding that our elected officials act in an ethical manner. If only I had a few billion dollars so my opinion mattered.
We should totally go with the thing that doesn't work but makes us feel good!
Are you familiar with market forces? Higher pay would mean the industry would simply pay more. And it would continue. How much is it worth to them to have inside players? A lot. As much as it takes.