Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) calls the Big Pharma lobbyist-induced frenzy to pass the Medicare prescription drug bill in the U.S. House of Representatives the "ugliest night" he has ever seen in politics.
Jones’ interview is part of a Steve Kroft report on how the pharmaceutical industry lobby influences Congress, to be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, April 1 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on CBS.
The lobby has spent over $800 million over the past eight years in political campaign contributions and expenses and lobbyists outnumber members of Congress more two to one, according to an upcoming report from the Center for Public Integrity. "I’ve been in politics for 22 years and it was the ugliest night I have ever seen in 22 years," says Jones of efforts by Republican Congressional leaders to persuade defecting Republicans to vote for one of the most expensive bills ever before the House.
"The pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote the bill," says Jones, who, with Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), was among those defectors. When they tallied votes, there were not enough to pass it, so the vote was kept open for longer than normal.
"They’re supposed to have 15 minutes to leave the voting machines open and it was open for almost three hours," says Burton. "The votes were there to defeat the bill for two hours and 45 minutes and we had leaders going around…trying to twist [defecting Republicans'] arms to get them to change their votes," says Burton.
"It was horrible," Jones tells Kroft. "We had a good friend from Michigan, Nick Smith (formerly R-Mich.) and they threatened to work against his son who wanted to run for his seat when he retired," recalls Jones. "I saw... a member of the House, a lady, crying when they came around her, trying to get her to change her vote."
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