evidence: The speech was classic Bernie, full of grand visions for a universal health care system at the expense of greedy corporate executives getting rich off the status quo. For Kahn, the CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents more than 1,000 for-profit hospitals, it wasn’t so much the rhetoric that bothered him, despite the fact that he — as head of one of the nation’s most powerful hospital lobbies — was one of the corporate executives in Sanders’ crosshairs. A 67-year-old former GOP operative who’d worked in and around politics since high school, Kahn was familiar with the Vermont senator’s lengthy, mostly solitary campaign for single-payer health care. [...] Even in a town with more than 20 lobbyists for every member of Congress, the corporate health care army is outsized; health care companies spent nearly $568 million on lobbying in 2018 alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, more than any other industry. For the past four years, its spending has topped a half-billion dollars. [...] Two Washington lobbying powers, meanwhile, defected in the past year. The National Retail Foundation quietly dropped out amid its escalating feud with hospital and doctor groups over surprise billing legislation.