Representative Tammy Baldwin is fighting hard to become the next Senator from Wisconsin. Should she win, she would be the first openly lesbian or gay Senator in US History. Baldwin is targeting former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson for his career during and after his tenure as a Cabinet Secretary for President George W. Bush.

She has been targeting “the fact that he cut a sweetheart deal with drug companies that increased the cost to taxpayers. It also focuses on the fact that after working for Bush, Thompson cashed in on his connections and profited off his work for drug companies.”

Baldwin’s campaign, which launched a new ad today, stated that:

Thompson left Wisconsin for Washington and went to work for the Bush Administration, where he was the “point man” on a plan to make it to illegal for the government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 11/21/2003, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sept. 4, 2012]

The Los Angeles Times reported: “U.S. drug manufacturers are reaping a windfall from taxpayers because Medicare’s privately administered prescription drug benefit program pays more than other government programs for the same medicines, a House committee charged in a report Thursday. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that taxpayers are paying up to 30% more for prescription drugs under Medicare’s privatized Part D program for seniors and the disabled than under the government’s Medicaid program for the poor.” [Los Angeles Times, 7/25/2008]

And the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a report which said: “If Medicare Part D paid the same price as Medicaid for all drug purchases, the total savings to the taxpayer over the next ten years could be as much as $156 billion. Beneficiaries could also save up to $27 billion.” [House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 2008]

Thompson “lobbied tirelessly” and “played a key role” in pushing through what the former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker called “the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s,” adding $242 billion to the federal deficit. [Politico, 10/7/2008; Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/4/04; Forbes, 11/20/2009]

On Thompson’s sweetheart deal with the drug companies, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, “Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, one of the few conservatives to stick to his principles in opposition to the creation of a major new entitlement program, added that the subsidies to “special interests” such as insurance and drug companies stand in stark contrast to the absence of any means of keeping costs from skyrocketing. In particular, he noted (as did many progressives) a truly bizarre section of the legislation that literally prohibits the government from bargaining over price with the drug companies and other suppliers to beneficiaries.”

In 2005, Thompson left the Bush administration to cash in on his Washington D.C. connections. According to public records and his personal financial disclosures, Thompson made a minimum of $724,100 from the pharmaceutical industry since leaving the Bush administration. [Personal Financial Disclosure, filed 8/13/2007; Personal Financial Disclosure, filed 1/27/2012; Curaxis SEC form S-1/A, 12/8/05; United Therapeutics SEC form DEF 14A, 4/30/2012]

Speaking of his time in the Bush administration, Thompson admitted he and his colleagues were changed by Washington. In a Presidential debate, Wolf Blitzer asked: “The question is, what’s President Bush’s biggest mistake over these past several years?” Thompson answered: “Because we went to Washington to change Washington, Washington changed us. We didn’t come up with new ideas.” (CNN Transcript, June 5, 2007)

“Boy Did He” Script: “Tommy Thompson left Wisconsin for Washington. Boy did he. Working for George Bush, Tommy cut a sweetheart deal with drug companies, making it illegal for Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. It cost taxpayers $156 billion dollars. Then Tommy made millions working for a lobbying firm that represents drug companies. ‘We went to Washington to change Washington, and Washington changed us.’ Tommy Thompson. He’s not for you anymore.”