Health Care and you... Lets Make A Deal ...screw the little guy!

"People who believe in real healthcare reform should not be nice about this. They must rise up and rebel against our popular new president's outrageous concession." (Quoted from The Nation; see story below)

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Remember when Obama was campaigning and he would say (on more than one occasion), "I'll rebuild this country from the bottom up and not from the top down." or words similar to that. Well I knew right away where he stole those words and instantly knew they where complete lies. Just as FDR used the words in his 1932 'Forgotten Man' speech and lied to the American people, Obama repeats history here by rebuilding from the top down...Big Pharma, in case you didn't know is not at the bottom (you and me are at the bottom). In researching for this topic I came across the following headlines with the main story from The Nation that follows. ~ Norman E. Hooben

White House Affirms Deal with Big Pharma

The Obama Administration has affirmed that it cut a deal with Big Pharma, which agreed to support Obama's (weak) public option and to give cuts of $80 billion over 10 (ten!) years. In return, Obama promised not to demand further concessions. For example, Obama agreed to prevent importation of cheaper drugs from Canada. Basically, this looks like a big sell-out to Big Pharma. [from OpEd News]

Dem Senators: White House Says It Cut No Deal With Drug Makers [from The Huffington Post ]

A senior White House aide told Democratic senators Thursday that the administration did not make a deal with the pharmaceutical lobby that would prevent Congress from using the government's clout to negotiate for lower drug prices, according to three Democratic senators who were in the meeting.

The New York Times had reported on Thursday morning that the White House affirmed that a deal barring price negotiations had been struck... Read the rest of story here (link).

A Rancid Deal with Big Pharma [source: The Nation ]

By William Greider August 6, 2009

So now we know why the president wants everyone to make nice in the healthcare debate. His White House has cut a deal with Big Pharma that smells like the same old rotten politics that candidate Obama regularly denounced and promised to end. The drug industry agrees to deliver $80 billion in future savings and the president promises the government will not use its awesome purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices.

Wow. This is roughly the same deal that George W. Bush cut with the drug makers when he was legislating Medicare's new coverage of drug purchases. It is the same bargain that Democrats in Congress universally condemned as wasteful and corrupt. The deal does not smell any better now that a Democratic president is embracing it.

In effect, Obama wants to give away one of the principal objectives of strong reform. The details were spelled out in today's New York Times and revealed by Big Pharma's top-dog lobbyist, Billy Tauzin, a former Republican congressman who leads the industry association. Tauzin called it a "rock-solid deal," and the White House did not dispute as much. But that is not the last word.

People who believe in real healthcare reform should not be nice about this. They must rise up and rebel against our popular new president's outrageous concession. They must demand that Congress declare the private deal-making null and void. If Congress lacks the nerve to do this, then this exercise in reform begins to look more and more like previous attempts that were eviscerated by the clout of the corporate interests.

The fate of healthcare reform may depend not on the Senate or the White House but on Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. What prompted Billy Tauzin to spill the beans on his deal-making with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was the House measure that specifies government's right to bargain for lower prices. No, no, no! Tauzin said. We've got a deal with the president, who says that won't be allowed.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi simply responds that the House is not bound by any deals made with the Senate or the White House. Her caucus must back up her words. They should pass the House bill, which will allow the government to do what any major customer would do in the same circumstances--use its leverage to demand lower prices.

If House Democrats stand their ground, then they will force a debate they can win with the American public. President Obama will have to choose between standing with the drug manufacturers or defending the original purpose of healthcare reform.

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