Pharma deal shuts down seante debate on healthcare

It appears Pharmaceutical lobby has Obama and some democrats in their pocket.



Pharma Deal Shuts Down Senate Health Care Debate


The White House, aided by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is working hard to crush an amendment being pushed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to allow for the reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, Senate sources tell the Huffington Post.

As a result, the Senate health care debate has come to a standstill: Carper has placed a "hold" on Dorgan's amendment and in response, Dorgan tells HuffPost, he'll object to any other amendments being considered before he gets a vote on his.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is a lead co-sponsor of Dorgan's amendment. She said she's confident that, as of now, they have the votes they need. "I think that's why we're not having this vote," she said, smiling. The amendment has the support of a number of other Republicans, including Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Charles Grassley (Iowa), John Thune (S.D.) and David Vitter (La.).

Opponents of the amendment worry that many more Republicans may join the amendment not because they agree with it, but because they want to put the health care bill in jeopardy.

So the White House and the drug makers are trying to persuade as many Democrats as they can to oppose the amendment despite their previous support for it.

"I don't think that's going to get my vote," Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said when HuffPost asked about the reimportation amendment. He said that even though he is a supporter of reimportation, he is concerned that if it passes it could blow everything up.

"I'm not messing around with anything without 60 votes. Nothing," he said. "And I'm a co-sponsor of the amendment."

The dispute within the Democratic caucus is becoming personal. "Of course, with Dorgan, it's all about Dorgan," a senior Democratic aide told HuffPost, complaining that Dorgan was willing to blow up health care reform for his own glory.

I don't see where Obam and Democrats are in Pharma Lobbyist pockets...

Gibberish said:

I don't see where Obam and Democrats are in Pharma Lobbyist pockets...

Click to expand...

So the White House and the drug makers are trying to persuade as many Democrats as they can to oppose the amendment despite their previous support for it.

REIMPORTATION

Think about that for a second...

Why export a drug to a - gasp - 'socialist' medical system that has negotiated the price down for their citizens, unlike their neighbors to the south free market system is unable to do, only to 'reimport' it?

Why not use bargaining power to negotiate the price downward before being exported, then reimported? Oh, that's right we have no such bargaining power because we don't have a public option to gain such power.

Well, what about using our bargaining power in our 'socialist' medical system that most everyone that has it loves it, Medicare. Ah but the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, passed by the Republican controlled Congress and signed into law by the Republican President expressly prohibits Medicare from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.

So now we turn to the dreaded 'socialist' medical system to help us out. Kinda ironic, donca think...LOL

in july obama made his SECRET DEAL WITH PHRMA

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma

it fell on the floor before filthy pharmaceuticals by disallowing drug importation from canada and other locales

the president also promised his pill-producing pals he would prohibit any renegotiating of drug prices under medicare parts b and d, abrogating and outraging the rights of congress

pelosi, waxman, dorgan, sherrod brown all bellyached belligerently

typically, the president denied the deal went down

but the times, the times and the huffpo got to the bottom of it

and dorgan's and carper's (on the part of the admin's) postures reveal the reality

the laugher should really buy a TV

1. carper, on behalf of the white house, put a "hold" on dorgan's amendment which would unmake obama's Secret Deal With Phrma

dorgan would ALLOW importation of cheaper prescriptions

he has the resounding, recognized support of republicans, cheerled by omnipresent olympia, maverick mccain, grumpy grassley and vulgar david vitter

reid cannot allow determined dorgan to the floor, the leader will surely lose

thus carper puts his "hold" on dorgan

however, the determined dissenter then has the right to "freeze" the entire senate---NO amendment can move until the hold is lifted

this is what's going on

2. polls

fox has reid's merge at 34% support, cnn 36, quinnipiac 38, rasmussen (founder of espn) 41

with opposed's, respectively---57, 61, 52 and 51

a well thumbed theorem from Politics 101 warns what happens to national figures and issues which fall below 40%

the senators are terrified

3. they're also completely in the dark as to reid's actual design---even the WHIP (durbin) complained

all say the same thing---we're awaiting cbo's scoring of M55, the party's desperate, improvisational attempt to escape their trap, this expansion downwards of medicare to age 55

we need numbers, they all take cover

4. which is why CMS's answer yesterday to mike enzi's written request was so devastating, it was all about numbers

and it came from the white house's own non partisan actuarial under hhs

the cms says that reid's merge (BEFORE the expansion of m55) bends the COST CURVE of health care UP by 234B

it also warns that, due to medicare's meagerly compensation of medics, m55 will put 20% of hospitals in the red

the white house and GATEKEEPER baucus tried to point out prettier apsects of the report

but dead dodd in a red faced tirade gave it all away---"completely wrong" is how the best FOA (friend of angelo) described the accountant

dodd's devastated

cms is just about the final blow to obamacare

when florida's BILL nelson, not to be confused with stiffnecked ben, the stupak of upstairs, calls m55 a "non starter..."

well, there ya go

5. back to the drawing board

for the umpteenth time

6. except---the schedule

they have to wait for cbo

they've promised to allow 72 hours for perusal

it takes days to end a filibuster

and they have vacation coming up, they want it by next friday

all this moves this monster into NEXT YEAR

which is why all this bad news coming NOW is so FATAL

if cms and dorgan went down a month ago, we'd still be exactly where we've been from the start

but dorgan and cms occurring NOW is an entirely different dilemna

7. meanwhile, reid has had to shelve health care for half a week so he can RAISE THE DEBT CEILING

8. by ONE POINT EIGHT TRIL

9. that's what they're doing this weekend

10. how inclement can scheduling be?

11. plus, today, he's trying to muscle thru ONE POINT ONE TRIL of FUNDING, a TEN PERCENT increase for congressional and cabinet agencies

12. ms pelosi crammed thru a measure yesterday to UP the secty's spending by only HALF A TRIL

13. all the while lifting the ceiling by almost TWO TRIL and expanding medicare by 20 mil while cutting it HALF A TRIL even tho it's already obligated under THIRTY FOUR TRIL of unfunded liability

14. i don't think obama can do math

15. the evils and idiocies of BUSH and PALIN aside, is there a SINGLE debatepoliticsforums member who will stand up in defense of these opprobrious proceedings

i am still to meet that member

Report: Senate Health Bill Will Raise Costs - WSJ.com

washingtonpost.com

RealClearPolitics - Video - Sen. Bill Nelson: Reid's Deal a "Non-Starter"

Doubts grow over Senate's Christmas deadline for health bill - TheHill.com

My Way News - Senate set to advance $1.1T spending bill

Conceptually, legal barriers that preclude the reimportation of drugs are nothing but an artificial restraint on trade, specifically via a prohibition on letting the marketplace address arbitrage opportunities. Such a law would be no different than one that would prohibit people from buying gold in London (when the price of gold there was lower than in New York) and selling the gold in New York to close the price disparity. I don't believe the force of law should be used to artificially preserve intermarket price disparities. Such laws amount to indirect taxpayer subsidization of the companies benefiting from such restraints on trade.

Should not be a big shocker tbh. After all big Pharma had the last President in their pocket also so /shrug.

dorgan's not shrugging

he's shivering

ie, freezing

tick tock...

I have been prescribed Plavix to help keep me alive and the cost per pill at the closest Walmart is $4.66 per pill right here in Riverside County California. The evry same drug can be purchased over the internet for $1.00 per pill bring the monthly cost from $140.00 down to $30.

This is only one drug still protected by a patent so there is no such thing a generic yet.

Don't try to give me the lie about how the Pharmaceutical Company has to charge more here to recoup the cost of research and development and because they are forced to sell cheaper in other cCountries, that is DAMN lie.

They are making a profit on the cheaper pills they sell in Canada and in Mexico and elsewhere or they would not be selling them there at all. That's just common sense.

We are being price gouged

The only thing good to come out of Socialized medicine is the cost of medicine but it does not have to a socialized system to force the costs down. It takes people in places of authority to want to to actually help people instead of lining their own pockets, and or garnering favor for campaign contributions, waste fraud and or abuse.

We lack leadership and it comes fro m both sides of the isles in both Houses of Congress and the White House.

This is only one other example of ways costs of Health Care can be forced down without the "Obama I Don't Really Care About Your Health Kill Granny Plan."

Wake up Democrats and Republicans and you so-called Libertarians, and Greenies and all the rest. We need fundamental change and it needs to be in the direction of honesty, which is the one thing all parties lack in huge quantities.

Councilman said:

Don't try to give me the lie about how the Pharmaceutical Company has to charge more here to recoup the cost of research and development and because they are forced to sell cheaper in other cCountries, that is DAMN lie.

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Councilman,

Any company whose business model depends on direct or indirect taxpayer subsidies or protectionism for the company's profitability is a flawed business model. Overall consumer welfare is damaged when customers are punished by government-protected higher prices that would not prevail in open competition.

i would like to report (real quickly, before the football game) to my dp friends and colleagues from all aisles what went down on the sunday talks today

some of you are gonna hear spin in these following words, but there really isn't any

either way

the discussions today were dominated by topics---

1. the deficit---centered around the raising of the debt ceiling and the passage of the 1.1T spender saturday with its 10% increase in congressional and cabinet spending

2. banks---focusing on obama's summit with the too bigs tomorrow, what's he gonna say/do, how will they react

3. regulatory reform---moving its way thru the house and on up, what's it mean

4. a stimulus report card---promises made vs results

5. a move on the part of kent conrad and judd gregg to do something along the lines of graham/rudman, hem in spending and borrowing at the congressional level

6. a similar move on the part of "freshmen dems" in the senate, specifically concerning health care, which is sposed to attract biz and republican support

7. the cms report which testified that the most recent reid merge (before the medicare expansion to 55) bends the cost curve up a quarter T

8. health care polls---universally below 40 and successively sinking (there are 4 polls, fox, cnn, quin and ras, and in each instance the more recent is a couple points lower than its predecessor)

9. me: the tone on all these shows is rather dull (lawrence summers), quiet, calm, a little boring, very hi falutin---cuzza the extremely fiduciary aspects under discussion---it feels like i'm reading the new york times

10. me: a very broad transfer of party leadership away from the white house and towards congress, very broad, vague, not called out, kinda underlying, kinda thematic

11. the issue of uncertainty---biz and LENDERS are afraid to move cuz they are in the dark about what's really going on

12. oslo---the speech was just about universally applauded, i have been saying it was a fine speech but fully false, i must admit (no suprise) that i don't believe i saw anyone go there, all accepted it as presidential and none questioned its authenticity (they're wrong, everyone here knows it, that speech made in oslo was NOT the obama you and i all have come to know in the last year), but either way...

13. health care

14. tiger

and that's the point

as i said clearly (forgive me for pointing it out) exactly 22 days ago when the ny times ran that front page piece prophesying a SERVICE on the debt, MERE INTEREST alone, to approach ONE TRIL PER YEAR by about 2016 or 17...

as was apparent 3 weeks ago, the DEFICIT was soon to ECLIPSE health care as the #1 domestic issue overarching our political landscape

"by january, you won't be able to say 'health care' without americans hearing 'deficit,'" were my exact words---i don't cite them for a childish "i was right" moment, but instead merely to show how transparently obvious and real are these developments

on abc's panel (will, huffington, podesta, ed gillespie, april ryan from urban radio---the lady gibbs last week told to "calm down, take a breath, that's what i tell my son,"): i believe it's fair to say there was consensus that obama's gonna have trouble influencing the bankers

and there was a general sense of a "lack of urgency"

both will and ms huff used those words

huff added---it's all "meaningless"

urban radio stood up for black unemployment, nothing's really been done for us

when it came to pelosi/obama's push against wall street, i would characterize all the conversants (john king of cnn, senators thune and warner) as uneducated

i would say they don't understand at all what's in the legislation

however, when it comes to rubber-meeting-road politics, i think most of us understand that health care still trumps all

and that's why i write this, to try to inform my friends about what's going on TODAY concerning obama's make-or-break

that cms was discussed as part of the general deficit/budget/spending/jobs discussion instead of as a major development in obamacare is very revealing

that cms had to be taken up there insteada here because health care was hardly addressed is the same

a cnn underline: "health care and afghanistan splits dems"

(shoulda read "split dems")

cnn underline: "primary care shortages hit communities hard"

cnn's final segment (state of the union with john king) went to denver to meet with young medics who tell the direful disincentives to be a gp as opposed to a specialist

abc's stephy showed a clip of whip durbin ON THE FLOOR, answering john mccain's anger---"i'm in the dark almost as much as he is, and i'm in leadership"

but the biggie i saved for last (and it's really my main reason for reporting, here):

chris wallace, son of 60 minutes mike, reports that a leading dem senator told him on fns that SHE will be a "definite no" on health care if costs are not controlled

that leading dem senator (drum roll, please)---

MS CLAIRE MCCASKILL!

whoa

that's pretty BIG

actually, ever since that terrible townhall she ran in southeast mri in the summer when they literally tore the poor woman to shreds, she was lucky to get outta that hi school gym alive...

me: reid on tuesday nite lied to em about the 60

what's that gonna do to his credibility moving forward...

into january...

and february

ptif219 said:

It appears Pharmaceutical lobby has Obama and some democrats in their pocket.



Pharma Deal Shuts Down Senate Health Care Debate


The White House, aided by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is working hard to crush an amendment being pushed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to allow for the reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, Senate sources tell the Huffington Post.

As a result, the Senate health care debate has come to a standstill: Carper has placed a "hold" on Dorgan's amendment and in response, Dorgan tells HuffPost, he'll object to any other amendments being considered before he gets a vote on his.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is a lead co-sponsor of Dorgan's amendment. She said she's confident that, as of now, they have the votes they need. "I think that's why we're not having this vote," she said, smiling. The amendment has the support of a number of other Republicans, including Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Charles Grassley (Iowa), John Thune (S.D.) and David Vitter (La.).

Opponents of the amendment worry that many more Republicans may join the amendment not because they agree with it, but because they want to put the health care bill in jeopardy.

So the White House and the drug makers are trying to persuade as many Democrats as they can to oppose the amendment despite their previous support for it.

"I don't think that's going to get my vote," Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said when HuffPost asked about the reimportation amendment. He said that even though he is a supporter of reimportation, he is concerned that if it passes it could blow everything up.

"I'm not messing around with anything without 60 votes. Nothing," he said. "And I'm a co-sponsor of the amendment."

The dispute within the Democratic caucus is becoming personal. "Of course, with Dorgan, it's all about Dorgan," a senior Democratic aide told HuffPost, complaining that Dorgan was willing to blow up health care reform for his own glory.

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DEMOCRATS in the pockets of BIG PHARMACEUTICAL. Hahahah, how ironic.

PeteEU said:

Should not be a big shocker tbh. After all big Pharma had the last President in their pocket also so /shrug.

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Big Anything has everyone in their pockets, amirite?