Endless amounts of cash for...

[SHRED]

...wars.

Always seems to be enough.

To cover our citizens so that everyone has health care access?
HELL NO MOTHERFUCKERS...DIE!!!

The CON mindset.

---

[waiting for hope]

1. You forgot endless amounts of cash from

the Health Care Lobbyists too:

~Snip~

Here, compiled by the AP, are individual company details about the lobbying activities in Q1 2009:

* PhRMA - $7 million
PhRMA is again trying to ensure drug companies won’t face steep cuts in prescription prices and, instead of reducing drug margins, have proposed cost reductions to hospitals and insurers.

* Pfizer - $6.1 million
Pfizer … more than doubled its lobbying spending from the year-ago period. The company also spent nearly $3.3 million lobbying in the fourth quarter of 2008.
New York-based Pfizer lobbied on legislation on health reform initiatives, electronic prescriptions, veterans issues, allowing generic versions of expensive biologic drugs and a proposal requiring research comparing the effectiveness of different medical treatments.
It also lobbied on U.S. patent reform and on international patent, trade and regulatory issues involving more than 20 countries; national health insurance; legislation to require drug makers to disclose payments to physicians; reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program; and environmental issues related to pharmaceutical manufacturing.

* Eli Lilly - $3.4 million
Domestically, the drugmaker lobbied on Medicaid rebates and advertising transparency.

* Amgen - $2.8 million
Amgen Inc., the world’s largest biotechnology company, spent nearly $2.8 million lobbying in the first quarter as Congress debates a potential system for bringing less expensive copies of pricey biotech drugs to the market.

* Merck - $1.5 million
Merck lobbied Congress and the White House on health care reform issues including increasing coverage for uninsured people, requiring research comparing the effectiveness of different medical treatments and keeping a private-sector health care system.
… and increasing funding for the national immunization program for low-income children.
Merck lobbied against imposing government price controls on prescription drugs bought under the Medicare program and against expanding rebates paid to the government for medications bought under the Medicaid program. But it lobbied for ensuring access to vaccines under Medicare; it sells the Zostavax vaccine against shingles, a painful, blistering rash that generally strikes senior citizens.

* Johnson & Johnson - $1.5 million
It lobbied on multiple bills involving the Medicare prescription drug program that would either limit discounts given to the government or lower the prices it pays.
J&J which offers employee wellness programs, lobbied in support of a tax credit to employers who do so, and on a bill that would require drug and medical device makers to report many payments to physicians.

* Wyeth - $876,000
Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth ( WYE - news - people ) lobbied on several aspects of health care reform, including bills that could limit the prices the government pays for medications, as well as public disclosure of drugmaker payments to doctors. It lobbied on drug advertising rules and legislation to modernize the Food and Drug Administration.
The maker of Centrum vitamins also lobbied on dietary supplement issues.

* Schering-Plough - $600,000
Schering-Plough lobbied on health reform issues including access to coverage, price rebates for drugs bought under the Medicaid program and proposals to require research comparing effectiveness of different medical treatments.
The maker of allergy treatments Nasonex and Claritin, and the HomeAgain Pet Recovery System also lobbied on reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, legislation affecting Food and Drug Administration operations, and against importation of cheaper prescription drugs from foreign countries, which domestic drugmakers have opposed for years.

* Amylin - $350,000
San Diego-based Amylin lobbied on legislation that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to approve copies of biotech drugs, reimbursement issues, drug safety and physician payment disclosures.

* Biogen - $290,000
The Cambridge, Mass.-based company lobbied on legislation that would set up a process for the Food and Drug Administration to approve biosimilars, or copies of biotech drugs.

* Previously:
* Drug Makers Gave Lobbyists an Xmas Gift — Millions More to Lobby Obama Administration

Pharma Lobbying Money: Who's Spending What Fighting Healthcare Reform

Gee - seems a bit ass backwards doesn't it?

edit - spelling

[valerief]

2. Endless amounts of cash to bail out financial institutions, too. nt

[lpbk2713]

3. The common denominator ...

... people are expendible.



That's how they see it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. Health care seems to be the major issue in DU these days