The revolving door continues to spin in Washington, and it’s taxpayer money that keeps it oiled.

Rep. Billy Tauzin was one of the primary authors of the Medicare prescription drug law that promises to create a huge windfall for the pharmaceutical industry. Now, the Louisiana lawmaker, who’s retiring from Congress, is becoming the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Tauzin is cashing in, selling his 24 years of accumulated Washington experience and contacts to an industry that helps to drive ever-increasing health care costs in this country. Some experts estimate Tauzin could cash in to the tune of $2 million in his new job, according to The New York Times.

Flash back to a few months ago. Thomas Scully, who was running Medicare, was President Bush’s negotiator with Congress on the drug bill. Soon after it passed, he left the government and became a lobbyist for – you guessed it – drug companies.

We don’t begrudge a former member of Congress or a government employee the opportunity to make a living once they leave public service. But when such big-salary jobs follow so closely on the heels of legislation that amounts to a huge payout for an industry, we can’t help but wonder what public these guys have been really representing.

Many people support the idea of a prescription drug benefit being added to Medicare. This law, however, doesn’t allow the government to negotiate with drug producers for lower prices. It forbids the reimportation of lower-cost medicine from other countries, including Canada. The White House’s cost projections for the bill, which were hidden from Congress, have ballooned from the initial price tag of $400 billion to more than $550 billion over 10 years – and nobody can be certain, given the trend in drug costs, that it won’t be even higher.

Tauzin and Scully helped to foist this law onto taxpayers. Now they’re working for the industry that stands to profit. No wonder so many people have lost faith in Congress.