Did South Korean Pharmaceutical Companies Help Finance The "Grassroots" Effort In Support Of The Medicare Drug Bill?

Ties between the GOP leadership, Korean business interests--including pharmaceutical companies, PhRMA, and a "grassroots" seniors organization--Sixty Plus, reveal just how money fuels a vast GOP propaganda machine that foists bad public policy on the American public.

In 2000, Hanwha Group, a Korean company with extremely close ties to Speaker Dennis Hastert, Rep. Tom DeLay, Rep. Roy Blunt and other GOP leaders donated $300,000 to a "grassroots" seniors organization, Sixty Plus, that has assisted the GOP with their legislative agenda, including their Medicare prescription drug proposal.

In addition to the $300,000 from the Hanwha Group, Sixty Plus also accepted an additional $250,000 from U.S. pharmaceutical interests in 2000.

Hanwha was also a major funder of the Korea US Exchange Council (KORUSEC).  KORUSEC was represented by the Alexander Strategy Group, and Ed Buckham, a former top aide to DeLay who shares extremely close ties with the lawmaker.

In June of 2001, the Chairman of Hanwha and KORUSEC, Seung Youn Kim, met with Speaker Dennis Hastert and Rep. Roy Blunt in Washington. 

In August of 2001, the KORUSEC sponsored a trip to Korea for 11 members of Congress, in apparent violation of House ethics rules.  Among the lawmakers making the trip, Rep. Tom DeLay and Rep. John Doolittle.

Also in August of 2001, Jack Abramoff steered a $25,000 contribution from the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to Rep. Tom DeLay's ARMPAC.  DeLay returned the contribution and Abramoff directed the Tribe to make the check out instead to the Sixty Plus Association, the group that had previously been the beneficiary of a $300,000 contribution from the Hanwha Group. 

In January 2002, Chairman Kim sponsored a luncheon in Seuol, Korea for Speaker Dennis Hastert, Rep. Roy Blunt and Rep. Jeff Flake.

Through Ed Buckham, Rep. Tom DeLay had extremely close ties to Chairman Kim and his bank account.  It is possible that Kim found Sixty Plus on his own, but it is far more likely that the intial $300,000 went to Sixty Plus at the suggestion of DeLay.

This theory is further strengthened by the subsequent Abramoff contribution of $25,000.

By December of 2003, President Bush, the GOP House Leadership and PhRMA were all celebrating the passage of the Medicare prescription drug plan.  In fact, at the bill signing, President Bush singled out Sixty Plus for their "grassroots" efforts in support of the bill.

What the President didn't say was the their effort was financed with money from Korean pharmaceutical companies, U.S. drug companies that stood to gain millions, and Indian tribes who had been defrauded out of millions.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi was exactly right when she called for a comprehensive investigation into the passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill.  If Speaker Hastert won't initiatite such an investigation, we can only hope the DOJ will stumble across all this in their investigation of Abramoff.

Click here for a handy-dandy graphic on this mess.