Betsy McCaughey, Paid Shill

Besty McCaughey - the original source of the mandatory euthanasia counseling nonsense - simply won't give up the ghost.  She showed up on the Daily Show last night and tried, unsuccessfully, to convince Jon Stewart that the House bill says what she says it does instead of what is actually written in black and white.

This isn't the first time McCaughey has injected herself into the national spotlight by willfully misleading the public.  She also got the ball rolling on killing health care reform during the Clinton administration. 

One has to wonder why she continues to lie about efforts to reform health care in this country.

Igor Volsky at the Wonk Room has a break down of McCaughey's less than honorable motivations for her "work."

As Health Care Renewal points out, "not noted in Betsy McCaughey's op-ed article was that she is currently on the board of directors of Cantel Medical, a device company, and formerly on the board of Genta, a biotechnology company."

In fact, according to a Statement of Changes in Beneficial Ownership Securities from the Securities and Exchange Commission, McCaughey received 750 Shares of stock options just days before writing the Bloomberg op-ed. Then, the total worth of the shares was approximately $11,250...

According to SEC filings, McCaughey has received over $55,000 in compensation from Cantel Medical, Inc. in the fiscal year ending 7/31/08.

McCaughey reportedly receives $30,000 a year from Cantel in fees and, up until her resignation in 2007, received "$23,600 per year in board fees and options from a drugmaking company, Genta Inc."

So now we know what it costs to pay someone to lie to the American public and instigate the distribution of disgusting rumors that are not only false but also serve to help prevent the democratic process from happening in town halls across the country. 

Evidently, McCaughey and Cantel (belatedly) realized their relationship might cause a "conflict of interest":

A release put out Friday afternoon by Cantel Medical says that the company received McCaughey's letter of resignation on Thursday. The letter, Cantel Medical says, "stated that she was resigning to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest during the national debate over healthcare reform." McCaughey reportedly received about $30,000 a year in fees from the company.

It's just now occurring to her that there might be the "appearance of a conflict of interest"? 

Really?

And this is the woman who is trusted by millions to analyze health care.  Good grief.