Instead of giving their own speeches to be entered into the record during recent House debates over health care reform, more than a dozen Republican and Democratic members got up and recited words that had been given to them by Pharmaceutical industry lobbyists.

They didn't even bother to alter the text that had been provided to them by a subsidiary of the Swiss corporation Roche.

They just said what they were told to say.

And they aren't embarrassed about it at all.

Here goes:

In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident. Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies. E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

Oh, joy.

That's bipartisanship for you!

No reason to bring the concerns of your constituents to the table when your words are already being written for you by one of the biggest companies on the globe.

Both Republicans and Democrats.

If the Congress was an honorable institution, this would be a scandal.

The members involved would resign.