Fantastic analysis by Cenk about President Obama's Big Pharma Deal & how it's just more of the same

[Divine Discontent]

politics with a different face.

It is exactly the reason that many Democrats are so disappointed with the White House and people like Rahm and Axelrod having so much influence.

Everyone really should check it out and ignore the couple of people that decry Cenk's incredible analysis.

It truly is a must view ---

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x434292#434389

I had no idea Axelrod's former company got a big contract after Obama got in office, and therefore they could pay him the millions he's owed. I had no idea that Sen Carper and Menendez switched their votes to block the Bill Nelson amendment that would have had Big Pharma paying for the uncovered prescription expenses of seniors and that they, like candidate Obama have received so much money from the pill companies who raised rates 9% (10 billion increase for 1 year) for meds after making the discreet deal with the White House.

I cannot encourage everyone enough to go watch it, Cenk's analysis on this is great, and a must see. It is sad to hear the facts laid out, but they need heard.

[FrenchieCat]

1. The deal that was announced as it was being made?

Money from Pill Companies? like when my Dad donated, and he works for Baxter?
Ooh boy!

One minute you want him purer than the driven snow, the next minute you want him tough as chicago nails, next minute after that you want FDR, then JFK, then LBJ. You want a socialist,
a tall tan Kucinich, a brown monogamous John Edwards.

So yes, Let's investigate, impeach and then castrate!

Happy Valentine Day to you too!

[Divine Discontent]

2. Wasn't sure which one between you or the other would respond within minutes of this post!

You win a prize!


But, happy valentines day to you, too. And you oughta watch the video, it's very informative.



And what's with you always being so absurd in your responses, btw?

Seriously, why is that, FC? "Let's investigate, impeach and then castrate!"

Such a ridiculous and overboard comment, par for the course I suppose.

And as for "ridiculously high expectations" - it'd be nice to have SOME expectation that this presidency would be different from all the others where big corporate money guarantees good fat deals for the super rich. It's more of the same with the Obama White House.

Many people asked me, because I have backed Obama so much to get them to vote for him, what I think about his comment about sticking up for corporate fat cats getting big bonuses. It makes me sick to have to tell them, well, I guess I was wrong.



God bless you and enjoy a piece of chocolate today, it's gonna be a sweet day, enjoy it! :loveya:

[FrenchieCat]

3. Presidential elections are three years away.......

Till then.

Got anything on Dick Cheney? what-his-face Cantor? Scott Brown? or Bohner?
In the meantime?

I'd love to have you smear them. :shrug:

[Divine Discontent]

4. Too busy reading all the facts about the guy making all the deals & his former cohorts in the Senate

[Divine Discontent]

5. "I'd love to hear you smear them". They're not in charge making these decisions, you are missing

that point, apparently. And, my one little post commenting about what Cenk detailed, some of which I didn't know, is far from 'smearing', but you go ahead and hyperbole-away! You love doing that.

Good night!

[DrDan]

11. no different than other politicians . . . that is becoming more clear each day

[Kahuna]

7. You hit the nail on the head. Unless Obama is spouting the politics of

Dennis Kucinich...you know the guy who ran and got no where....TWICE...a lot of DUers will never be happy with him or America. I include America because the America that Obama is the president of, is a culture that has been in place since its founding. Yet, a lot of people seem to have believed that Obama could change DC....and not only change it, but do so in a years time. :crazy:

[Donnachaidh]

33. you know, this is a WEAK deflection and getting old, dontcha think?

Yeah yeah Kucinich yadda yadda -- look over HEAR, we don't want you looking THERE.

We didn't expect instantaneous change, but of course the bots have to automatically go on spin (Think the Dalek Voice -- ***EXTERMINATE DISSENT***).

But we sure weren't expecting him to cozy up with the pharma folks as quickly as he did, for future campaign contributions.

Yeah -- he's getting that *change* ready so he can toss it out the windows at the homeless in DC. :sarcasm:

[Divine Discontent]

35. FC says - "You want a socialist, a tall tan Kucinich, a brown monogamous John Edwards."

FC says - "So yes, Let's investigate, impeach and then castrate!"


You want a tall tan Kucinich? A Brown monogamous John Edwards? Yeesh... who the hell brought anything like that up? President Obama is not B*sh. President Obama is being reviewed based on HIS failures and achievements in the first 13 months. There's too much capitulation to big business and same-ol politics.


You continue, even more so on edit, to be incredibly offensive in sounding quite racist when you look at what you write. You take it to skin tone, and the fact that he's black which doesn't even cross my mind when I think of my President. Wow... just wow.



Maybe you need to see him as just the president, that would help out your responses a touch.

[jgraz]

37. "Let's investigate, impeach and then castrate!"

Or... how about we just ask him to do his fucking job and stop lying to us? Hmm?

[ipaint]

6. The details of the pharma backroom deals are laid out in this article.

from the sunlight foundation.

"Because of Obama’s decision to develop a plan operating through the legislative process, members of Congress also played key roles. Early on, the pharmaceutical companies were told to deal directly with Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus. Baucus would be the vehicle for the deal worked out behind the scenes by the White House and PhRMA.

Central to this effort was PhRMA president, CEO and top lobbyist Billy Tauzin, a longtime Democratic member of Congress who switched party affiliations after Republicans gained control of Congress in 1994. By switching parties Tauzin was able to maintain his influence and even rose to be Chairman of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce. Tauzin became the poster child of Washington’s mercenary culture. He crafted a bill to provide prescription drug access to Medicare recipients, one that provided major concessions to the pharmaceutical industry. Medicare would not be able to negotiate for lower prescription drug costs and reimportation of drugs from first world countries would not be allowed. A few months after the bill passed, Tauzin announced that he was retiring from Congress and would be taking a job helming PhRMA for a salary of $2 million.

Tauzin’s job change became fodder for a campaign ad that then presidential candidate Barack Obama ran in the spring of 2008 simply titled “Billy.” It featured the candidate, sleeves rolled up, talking to a salon of gasping Americans about the ways of Washington. “The pharmaceutical industry wrote into the prescription drug plan that Medicare could not negotiate with drug companies. And you know what, the chairman of the committee, who pushed the law through, went to work for the pharmaceutical industry making $2 million a year.” The screen fades to black to inform the viewer that, “Barack Obama is the only candidate who refuses Washington lobbyist money,” while the candidate continues his lecture, “Imagine that. That’s an example of the same old game playing in Washington. You know, I don’t want to learn how to play the game better, I want to put an end to the game playing.”

snip

"On April 15, Jim Messina and Jon Selib, chief of staff to Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, convened a meeting at the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) with leaders of organized labor and health care groups, including PhRMA. At the meeting, the groups decided to form two nonprofit entities to promote reform efforts, Healthy Economy Now and Americans for Stable Quality Care, that would be almost entirely funded by PhRMA. The two groups spent $24 million on their advertising campaigns; the contract to produce and place ads went to White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod’s former firm, AKPD, which owed Axelrod $2 million."

http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/02/12/the-legacy-of-billy-tauzin-the-white-house-phrma-deal/

Much more about the timeline and the deals behind the scenes in the article.

[johnaries]

32. Interesting article. I don't know how accurate it is but it seems

pretty even-handed.

I can't watch the Cenk vid because I'm on dial-up at home my work has you-tube blocked for good reason, it's a breeding ground for viruses; so I don't know that I would watch anything on you-tube if I could. So I won't try to comment on it. So I'll just stick to this article.

First of all, obviously few people here understand "negotiations". Like them or not, we need PhRMA. We need them to produce drugs. We need them to continue to sink billions of dollars into R&D to create new drugs. True, they do a lot of "evil things" but those are separate issues that can and should be addressed as separate issues. Yes, the measures we all support - negotiating prices, reimportation, etc. - would save us billions more. But they would also "squeeze" PhRMA to the point where they would spend billions to kill the bills and if they passed, might decide to move on to more profitable ventures and stop private R&D into creating new drugs. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is debatable, but it cannot be denied that they have made important contributions and switching to a fully federally funded R&D procedure would be extremely costly, time-consuming, and have a huge impact on a struggling economy.

However, by using these measures as "bargaining chips", the Admin not only got PhRMA to agree to a volutary $80 billion in cost-cutting (unheard of!), but to openly support it and spend millions of dollars promoting it! This is HUGH!!!!!!1111!!!!!

Of course, the promotion was unsucessful and there are some indications that while "openly supporting" the bill PhRMA was using shadow puppets to undermine it. If true, then as far as I am concerned all gloves should be off.

BUT, there is no evidence of the Administration being "bought". It appears to me that Obama kept his promise of bringing all parties to the table and trying to work out the best possible deal.

Note that I said the best possible deal. NOT the best deal imaginable. Simply because the best deal imaginable is simply imaginary, and simply not possible in the "real" world.

I believe in reaching for a star - but if all you get is a moonbeam, then you still have a moonbeam! Which is reason enough to cheer!

[mgcgulfcoast]

8. politics never change

i never believed for a second lobbyists would have any less influence on obama than any other president.

[Enthusiast]

9. But many of us did believe him.

I guess we should just shut up and accept that Obama is going to become as corrupt as the rest?

There should have been no deal with the big pharmaceutical interests. U.S. drug prices are ridiculous. The medicare drug bill law needs to be changed.

This is one area where any senior citizen can understand the difference between reform and caving to corporate interests. Caving in to Pharmaceutical interests will cost us in the next election. There is no fucking excuse for it, NONE.

[mgcgulfcoast]

10. maybe i am cynical

i see obama as no different than any other politician. he just comes closer to my views.

[DrDan]

12. seems to me that I am having a harder and harder time figuring out

what his views are.

[Enthusiast]

14. Hard to come to any other conclusion.

He is all over the place.

One thing we know for sure. Obama is against holding Republicans from the last administration accountable for criminality. We have established that.

[DrDan]

15. yeah - no doubt about that - absolutely no interest in pursuing any sort of accountability

[vegiegals]

13. I partially believed it but am angry to see the WH so close to big pharm.

[ProSense]

16. This video is on the front page, and it's simply Cenk spinning bullshit.

Medicare Part D mentioned in the clip is separate from the Pharma deal. In fact, together with the $80 billion in additional savings from the deal, the total cuts in payments to insurers and drug companies is nearly $600 billion (including about the $500 billion from closing the doughnut hole).

Still, it's amazing that people continue to claim that $80 billion is nothing when, in fact, that is likely more than the savings that will be realized under drug reimportation. Again, why does Cenk ignore the $500 billion?

If people are going to accuse the President in this manner, they better be willing to call for an investigation. My guess is that Cenk knows his accusations are complete nonsense.

[ipaint]

17. Not in the senate bill.

The White House, PhRMA and Baucus still had to fight a few battles to keep the deal intact. The key amendment targeting the PhRMA deal in committee mark-up came from Sen. Bill Nelson from Florida, which has one of the largest Medicare participant populations in the nation. The pull of constituent needs clearly put Bill Nelson into a position to push for further cost cutting in Medicare prescription drug pricing. His target: closing the “donut hole” completely.

Nelson claimed that his amendment would generate $106 billion in revenue, or from PhRMA’s perspective increase their cost-cutting to $186 billion. That would be unacceptable to PhRMA, to Baucus, to the White House and to the pharmaceutical industry who had made the deal. Other Senate Democrats, Tom Carper and Robert Menendez voted with Republicans and Baucus on the committee to defeat the amendment. It is little surprise the Carper’s Delaware is home to AstraZeneca and Menendez’ New Jersey is home to Merck and Bristol-Myers-Squibb, all of which lobbied for the $80 billion cap.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced the final bill, with the cap in place, on November 19. Debate began on Dec. 3, and with it come one more attempt by members to change the terms of the deal. Senator Byron Dorgan introduced an amendment that would allow for drug re-importation, but as the date for voting drew near, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) released a letter objecting to the proposal that echoed pharmaceutical industry talking points: “…as currently written, the resulting structure would be logistically challenging to implement and resource intensive. In addition, there are significant safety concerns.” Dorgan’s amendment was defeated with numerous Democrats previously in support of reimportation switching to “no” votes.

On Christmas Eve, the bill passed the Senate with the PhRMA deal fully intact.

http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2010/02/12/the-legacy-of-billy-tauzin-the-white-house-phrma-deal/

The house bill would eventually close the donut hole. And much like the public option, it will never happen.

[ProSense]

19. Wrong,

“The bill passed by the Senate makes needed progress to prevent coverage denials due to health status and limit insurance companies from charging older Americans much more for coverage because of their age. It also begins to close the dangerous gap in Medicare drug coverage known as the doughnut hole, and Senate leaders have committed that a final bill will close the gap entirely by 2019, in keeping with the President’s pledge. In addition, the Senate bill adds important new Medicare benefits, like free preventive care, and encourages states to provide more home and community-based long-term care services and supports instead of costlier institutional care.

link

[ipaint]

24. Wrong.

From Feb 9th.

"This morning, during a panel discussion at the Academy Health National Health Policy Conference, a top Pelosi policy aide said that the reconciliation process was “the only way” for Democrats to salvage health reform in the aftermath of the Massachusetts election. “There is only one way to get it done at this stage of the game and that’s a process that the Speaker has outlined,” Wendell Primus, Pelosi’s legislative director said. Congress would have to pass the Senate health care bill alongside a package of fixes using reconciliation.

“The House would have to take up that first because it would involve revenue changes and then the Senate would pass it and then I think hopefully with the passing of that legislation, the House, only then would take up the Senate bill and pass it.”

“The trick in all of this is that the President would have to sign the Senate bill first and then the reconciliation bill would be signed second and the parts of the reconciliation bill that trump the relevant portions of the first signed bill.” “You would really have to use the fact that a later enacted bill takes precedent over a previously enacted bill to achieve the right outcome.” Primus added. He predicted that the reconciliation package of fixes would have to increase the threshold on the Cadillac tax, include more affordability credits, close the donut hole in the Medicare Part D drug benefit, and eliminate the Cornhusker Kickback."

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/02/09/top-pelosi-aide-says-reconciliation/

If it's in the current senate bill to begin with why use reconciliation to "fix" the senate bill to include closing the donut hole.

[ProSense]

29. No, you're misunderstanding what you read.

Both bills close the donut hole, but the House bill does it faster. They need to reconcile the timing.

[Donnachaidh]

34. no, you're deliberately spinning bullshit

the senate bill does NOT close the donut hole. It knocks $500 off, but leaves $2,000 for the seniors to deal with. Hell, why should the pharma companies have to give up all that PROFIT?

[slipslidingaway]

18. You posted the same BS in the PV videos thread and ignored...

my replies to you in that thread.

Post links to the numbers you are talking about...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=434292&mesg_id=434462

Video - watch P. Obama talk about the doughnut hole and the 80 billion dollar deal.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=434292&mesg_id=434459

As usual, you conveniently forget that the Obama/Biden HC plan talks of saving 300 billion, just by letting Medicare negotiate drug prices.

Soon we'll be hearing how we have to cut entitlement programs, maybe we should push to allow negotiation of drug prices instead of this back room deal that the WH expects members of Congress to endorse.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

"Allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices.

The 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act bans the government from negotiating down the prices of prescription drugs, even though the Department of Veterans Affairs’ negotiation of prescription drug prices with drug companies has garnered significant savings for taxpayers.32 Barack Obama and Joe Biden will repeal the ban on direct negotiation with drug companies and use the resulting savings, which could be as high as $30 billion,33 to further invest in improving health care coverage and quality."

[ProSense]

20. "watch P. Obama talk about the doughnut hole and the 80 billion dollar deal."

What exactly are you trying to prove?

Cenk never mentioned the $500 billion from closing the doughnut hole, and the health care bills do just that.

[slipslidingaway]

23. Why do you continue to ignore the negotiation for drug prices by Medicare...

you have been doing this since September when I posted a few threads about it.

:shrug:

"This video is on the front page, and it's simply Cenk spinning bullshit.
Edited on Sun Feb-14-10 02:20 PM by ProSense

Medicare Part D mentioned in the clip is separate from the Pharma deal."

Now watch Obama speak about the same two separate issues.

The Medicare Part D coverage gap (also known as the Medicare donut hole

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24023.html

June 2009

"President Barack Obama appeared with AARP chief Barry Rand Monday morning to announce an agreement among pharmaceutical companies to cut prescription drug costs for seniors — and inject some energy into his efforts at comprehensive health care reform..."

[slipslidingaway]

30. Please post links - who is paying this 500 billion that you continue to mention...

"Cenk never mentioned the $500 billion from closing the doughnut hole, and the health care bills do just that."

I posted about the 300 billion mentioned in the Obama/Biden HC plan, instead there was a deal made for 80 billion.

[jgraz]

38. .

:rofl:

[Dinger]

21. K & Rec #1

Hopefully many more.:)

[Divine Discontent]

25. Hi D, there's been plenty of recs, if you know what I mean. It's great analysis by Cenk. Sorry to

have that be the truth, because I didn't want the corporate lobbyists to get so much influence in their talks with the WH, but they have, and Big Pharma and others should have been told and SCARED like we all were for the bailouts, that if they didn't give concessions that the entire economy would collapse and they'd lose their businesses anyhow!

[asdjrocky]

22. Big giant K&R!

The President is lying to us. Again, and again.

[Divine Discontent]

26. thx, the truth needs heard. it's painful, but maybe if enough people let him know we're not happy,

and the approvals drop down low enough, he'll realize we're not going to pretend it's all okay, that we think he's doing fabulously when the facts bare different fruit...

[asdjrocky]

27. I'm with Thoreau on this...

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

[Divine Discontent]

28. that's excellent! I admire this one from him

“What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?”

Henry David Thoreau



I feel like that as a guy who's Gay. Not to mention believing in Christ. I get attacked from some people on all sides! Oh the misery. ha! But, we must continue living boldly and without shame for we are given life and though it be painful and hard to exist at times, it is precious. I have learned to accept anyone for their beliefs that do not harm another and their own right to live as they wish. What a more peaceful world it would be. I went to Colorado in the mountains for a year, it was so nice, lots of open-minded types up there. :)

[freddie mertz]

31. Thanks for posting this. K & R.

We need to know a lot more about this and any other deals that were hatched behind closed doors.

[Divine Discontent]

36. You're welcome. We can hope that in these upcoming years he stands firm against the corporations &

becomes the hero we all want him to be. Someone that would literally make me want to go get a plate with his picture on it! LOL I have a magazine of his win, but that's as far as my personal collection would ever go if this is what we'll get - someone that is all over the board on standing up to the banksters and big med/pharma. He can't have it both ways - we won't back that.

[TexasObserver]

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