[Hoot Gibson]

First, I didn't use "evil" language. Second, nowhere did I say the pharmaceutical companies should be excluded from having a voice. Third, I concur that drug companies are on the front lines of medical advances and treatments. I used Big Pharma as an example of a cluster of corporations, banded together by like interests, treated as a single individual, granted enormous influence and power.

Unfortunately, in the system of government that has evolved, if industries do not lobby, then they are victimized by their own government. It is a pay to play system and the trial lawyers, environmental extremists, and other liberal groups lobby the government at least as effectively as the major employers in this country do. The lack of tort reform in this country costs Americans billions of dollars of dollars in higher medical and insurance costs. Yet, liberals rarely demonize the hands that feed their politicians.