David Kirkpatrick in the New York Times writes about the warring health care industry stakeholders, and their fight to carve up the medical industrial complex bailout pie. We are truly ruled by lobbyists:

Hospital lobbyists, like the drug makers, have a deal with the White House to limit their costs and are pushing hard to pass a bill. But the hospitals are haggling with the Senate Finance Committee over another proposal: a newly empowered Medicare oversight board that could impose payment reductions.

Two hospital lobbyists, speaking anonymously because the discussions are confidential, say their deal should protect them from further cuts the board might seek. White House officials dispute that, though when asked about the matter recently, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said the hospital deal included cuts it might have taken a decade to achieve.

It’s amazing how they can go from never inquiring about the deals made over the summer between the Baucus Caucus and stakeholders to the presumption that everyone knows what they are in one clean leap.

And still we get reporting like this:

Sept. 4, 2009:  CNN has learned that the White House is quietly talking about drafting formal health care legislation after allowing Congress to work on its own for months.

How does "negotiating the deals with lobbyists who expect them to be memorialized in the Baucus bill" jibe with "allowing Congress to work on its own for months"?