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Klain, who was also a former adviser to Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden, was paid $80,000 to lobby Congress on behalf of a bill that would have shielded a roofing company from worker lawsuits, according to a 2008 article in Politico that detailed his lobbying career when he was selected as Biden’s chief of staff. Politico reporter Kenneth Vogel wrote that Klain lobbied on behalf of the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, which was later discovered to be a front group for a roofing company called GAF Materials Corporation.
Obama's Ebola czar Ronald A. Klain
GAF Materials faced, “...huge liabilities related to asbestos-exposure lawsuits,” Vogel wrote, describing Klain’s lobbying efforts on its behalf: “In the first six months of 2000, the coalition paid $80,000 to have Klain and two of his colleagues lobby Congress, as well as his former employers in the White House and the Justice Department on H.R. 1283, which would have protected asbestos companies from lawsuits filed by workers harmed by the product.” “Public Citizen called the push for the bill, which didn’t pass, ‘a classic example of how special interests in Washington use political contributions, high-powered lobbying and public relations firms and prestigious academics to work their will in Congress — and trample on the rights of workers and consumers in the process’.” “Klain’s career as a lobbyist, during which clients paid nearly $700,000 for lobbying in which he participated, ended when he left his partnership at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers in 2005,” Vogel wrote.
He also lobbied for Fannie Mae, helping the mortgage giant to overcome “regulatory issues,” as well as major airline and pharmaceutical companies. Klain “epitomizes the side of the influence industry that Obama decried during his campaign: big companies paying Beltway insiders lots of money to craft laws and rules that help them,” Vogel noted.
Obama s New Ebola Czar Was For Solyndra Against Asbestos Victims CNS News
Obama said the experts have advised him that it's more effective to let West Africans into the U.S. than it would be to keep them out. "The problem is that in all the discussions I've had thus far with experts in the field, experts in infectious disease, is that a travel ban is less effective than the measures that we are currently instituting, that involve screening passengers who are coming from West Africa."
Obama said it's important to continue screening West Africans before they get on planes and then after they arrive in the U.S. to see if they're showing signs of disease. Sick people should get medical evaluations, he said. And people who are not sick should list their contact information. "If we institute a travel ban instead of the protocols that we put in place now, history shows that there is a likelihood of increased avoidance. People do not readily disclose their information. They may engage in something called broken travel, essentially breaking up their trip, so they can hide the fact that they have been to one of these countries where the disease is in place. And as a result, we may end up getting less information about who has the disease. They're less likely to get treated properly, screened properly, quarantined properly. And as a consequence we could end up having more cases rather than less."
Obama said if his medical experts come back to him and recommend additional precautions, "I assure you, we will do it, but it is important in these circumstances for us to look at the history of how these infectious diseases are best dealt with. And it is currently the judgment of all those, involved that a flat-out travel ban is not the best way to go. But we will continue to monitor this. I'm asking these questions. "If in fact it turns out I'm getting different answers, then I will share them with the American people. We will not hesitate to do what's necessary in order to maximize the chances that we avoid an outbreak here in the United States..."
Obama said he understands that "people are worried" about Ebola. "But what I want to emphasize once again is that right now, we got one individual who came in with the disease. We have two nurses who have been diagnosed with the disease as a consequence of in some fashion being exposed during treatment. And what remains true is that this is not an airborne disease. It has not easy to catch. You can only catch it through being in contact with the bodily fluids of an individual who not only has the disease, but also is showing symptoms of the disease. "And so it's important, I think, for all of us to keep perspective in terms of how we handle this. We are taking this very seriously at the highest levels, starting with me."
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