Lawyers & ObamaCare: A Nice Return on Their Investment

This comes directly from Michelle Malkin's blog. Normally I would have posted a comment at her site, but for some reason my WordPress login isn't recognized by Michelle's site, so, I'll comment here. First, her post:

Exposed: A trial lawyers’ pay-off in Obamacare

By Michelle Malkin • July 22, 2009 01:42 PM

Walter Olson has the scoop on how Dems tried to stuff goodies for trial lawyers in the House Democrats’ health care takeover bill.

Republicans apparently stymied those efforts last week, but like the Terminator, they’ll be back.

Keep an eye on this one:

Just before the House leadership’s 794-page health care reform bill went to a Ways & Means markup last Thursday, a remarkable provision was slipped in that amounts to one of the more audacious and far-reaching trial lawyer power grabs seen on Capitol Hill in a while. Republicans managed to fend it off for the moment–but don’t be surprised if it shows up again down the road in some form.

The provision would have drastically widened the scope of lawsuits against what are known as Medicare third-party defendants…

…The language slipped into the health bill would greatly expand the scope of these suits against third parties, while doing something entirely new, namely allow freelance lawyers to file them on behalf of the government–without asking permission–and collect rich bounties if they manage thereby to extract money from the defendants. Lawyers will recognize this as a “qui tam” procedure, of the sort that has led to a growing body of litigation filed by freelance bounty hunters against universities, defense contractors and others alleged to have overcharged the government.

It gets worse…

This story really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Obama is a lawyer and a Democrat in the hip pocket of the trial lawyers. OpenSecrets.org - an extremely valuable resource to dig up all kinds of info on politicians and their donors - reveals that Barack Obama took in $42,829,052 from lawyers in the 2008 election cycle making him the top recipient of campaign contributions from lawyers. Who was the Number two beneficiary of lawyer largess? Hillary Clinton at $16,037,641 (or 37.44% of Barack's take from members of the profession) No surprises there either. See, OpenSecrets.org. Of the 750 Million Dollars Obama raised, lawyers gave just a little over 5.7% of the total.

In the 2008 campaign cycle Lawyers (as a subset of campaign contributors) gave to Democrat candidates ($178 Million) at a rate of a little bit more than 3 to 1 over Republicans ($54 Million) See, OpenSecrets .org

Here's a link to the American Association of Justice (f/k/a Association of Trial Lawyers of America) page at OpenSecrets.org.

Open Secrets describes ATLA - oops, that's AAJ, nearly forgot they changed their name to cloak the guilty - as follows:

American Assn for Justice

Formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), this group of plaintiffs' attorneys and others in the legal profession now goes by the name of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) and boasts 56,000 members worldwide. A lobbying heavyweight, the association has been battling any attempt at tort reform, including recent proposals to cap awards in medical malpractice lawsuits. AAJ also lobbies Congress on any legislation that may inhibit the ability of consumers to bring lawsuits, particularly against health care providers, asbestos companies or insurance companies processing claims related to terrorism. The association favors Democrats, who oppose most attempts to initiate tort reform.