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Yesterday at the Sunlight Foundation, Paul Blumenthal writes up a useful history of the Obama/PHRMA deal (the story will be completely familiar to FDL readers). Blumenthal’s piece, White House Health Proposal May Blow Up PhRMA Deal speculates that Obama’s recently issued "compromise" on health care endangers the once-secret deal between Obama-Baucus and PHARMA:
Throughout 2009, PhRMA and major pharmaceutical companies crafted a deal with the White House to limit cost cutting by the industry in exchange for the industry’s support, through over $100 million in television advertising, for health care reform. (The entire story behind the crafting of the deal can be read here.) The White House’s new proposal contains deeper cost cuts than previously agreed to and contains regulations on the relationship between brand-name and generic drug companies that the industry opposes.
I don’t think so. The only comment by PHARMA to date has been to discard Billy Tauzin into the compost pile, but it seems more likely that PHRMA will still take the deal, and the excellent profits they will now realize thanks to Obama’s secret agreement with them.
Obama is still bought. His proposal, which ignores the work of the House of Representatives as well as the efforts of all senate committees except that chaired by Baucus shows that he’s still the honest politician who, once bought, stays bought.
Two brief articles by Blumenthal are well worth reading, as useful summaries of where this sad, stinking, and corrupt process has led us to date. Again, none of this will be new to the FDL community, but the pieces do provide a useful and quick summary:
White House Health Proposal May Blow Up PhRMA Deal
The Legacy of Billy Tauzin: The White House-PhRMA Deal
Related:
8 Comments
Thanks, C O. Isn’t it sad that the only thing Obama sticks to is his deal to be bought? Promises made during the primary? No, those can be discarded any time he wants…
“Promises made during the primary? No, those can be discarded any time he wants…” He and his team are banking on the lack of long term memory in the public’s collective mind, plus the fact that they’re so lucky the present HC system is so terminally broken even a lousy phony fix that provides something will be seen as better then nothing. It’s a gamble and not necessarily a bad one. If the economy however never provides any jobs it won’t really matter much, he’ll be turned out anyway. He’s been handed a situation 10X’s worse then the mess Carter inherited and I think he knew going in the odds against him making a 2nd term were pretty long. On top of that he really lacks effective leadership skills and that is somewhat of a surprise. Although, a close look at his rather thin resume should have had all of us flying a red flag long ago. He’s never even managed a small restaurant let alone the Fed. Gov’t! maybe, we need some min. standards for applicants for this job in the future? It would weed out guys like him.
pssst…is that a typo?
Hah! Thanks. Although, come to think of it, I kind of like it…
The Phrma deal is done, I think, with the ouster of Tauzin. Not that this means Obama will give Phrma the blow they deserve.
Really? What part of the deal described below is Obama changing, now?
This is from one of Blumenthal’s pieces, linked above:
good question i am waiting for the answer
“The Pharma is done, I think…”
I’ve lurked past several times and still haven’t seen it explained either.
Thanks to Casual Observer for posting what some still don’t want to see.