STARK: ‘THE PRESIDENT IS LUCKY TO HAVE HER’
Rep. Pete Stark believes President Obama’s new health care czar, who received over $6 million in compensation from many in the health care industry she is now entrusted to reform, was an excellent choice, according to the Congressional Quarterly.

According to financial disclosure reports filed by the Director of the White House Office of Health Reform Nancy-Ann DeParle, who was named in March, she received $2.3 million from health care corporations in the months preceding her hiring. The report also states DeParle earned over $6 million since 2001.

Stark, whose profile has risen of late as Washington gears up for a fight over health care reform later this summer, told the web site he supports the naming of Nancy-Ann DeParle . “I understand the president asked Ms. DeParle to take this job because of her extraordinaryqualifications and experience in and outside of government, and I think she is an excellent choice,” said House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark.

Voters in Stark’s liberal East Bay enclave may be concerned over their congressman’s statement pertaining to DeParle’s past employment and lightly painting it as “business as usual” in Washington. “She demonstrated her independence time and again by supporting strong recommendations against the interests of companies she was advising at the time,” Stark said. “It’s hard to find a health care expert or member of Congress that hasn’t taken any money from a health interest, and I’ve never believed that should automatically disqualify a person’s experience. The President is lucky to have her on his team.”

An article on MSNBC.com says DeParle made her name as a go-to person helping health care corporations defend themselves against Federal investigations. As Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, DeParle will “pushing for the administration’s plans for changing health care and the ways Americans pay for it — changes in which her former companies have a great deal at stake.” A disclosure in the report notes DeParle has divested herself of all conflict of interests in regards to her past ties to the health care industry.