Celebrating The Wave Of Democratic Congressional Wins Still Coming In? Here's A Report About How Trump Got The Cash To Run All Those Attack Ads Against Them
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If we’ve learned anything about Donald Trump in the last 3 years, it’s that his word means nothing at all and that he’s the most transaction and opportunistic politician ever. During the campaign, he often tried adopting— with no context— Bernie’s populist ideas. But it was just hot, stinky air. One of Trump’s most popular promises that came directly from Bernie was to lower prescription drug prices. After Trump was elected, the idea was still popular but Trump began working hard to raise drug prices, not lower them. What a guy! And his followers seem not to have noticed— and will likely never notice. The short version of Sirota’s piece for Capital & Main: “In 2017 the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America gave $2.5 million to America First Policies Inc.— a major dark money group supporting President Donald Trump’s political and economic agenda.”
So far this year, America First’s PAC— America First Action— has spent $28,980,959, almost all of it on negative advertising against Democrats. Their biggest expenditures went into attack ads against a dozen canddiates:
• Joe Radinovich (MN)- $3,256,602
• Colin Allred (TX)- $3,036,688
• Joe Donnelly (IN)- $2,820,486
• Claire McCaskill (MO)- $2,625,287
• Jon Tester (MT)- $1,909,540
• Dan Feehan (MN)- $1,738,562
• Susie Lee (NV)- $1,678,086
• Elissa Slotkin (MI)- $1,397,996
• Richard Ojeda (WV)- $1,188,011
• Conor Lamb (PA)- $1,103,793
• Jared Golden (ME)- $1,089,171
• Doug Jones (AL)- $1,077,041
Where did they get that $28,980,959? Aside from the $10,000,000 bribe from the Adelsons, other high rollers giving to the America First umbrella operation… was the the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the top lobbying group for the drug industry and they got exactly what they were paying for: “at the same time,” wrote Sirota, “Trump backed off his position on a major drug issue and promoted a tax plan that was a windfall for the industry.”
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America gave $2.5 million to America First Policies in 2017, according to IRS documents. America First Policies was formed by former Trump advisers in 2017 and proudly touts itself as a pro-Trump organization. The PhRMA money represented more than 10 percent of America First Policies’ revenues in 2017, according to the group’s own IRS filings.This ugly, deceitful ad, run by Trump's America First Action-- and paid for by the major America drug companies that are ripping us all off-- back-fired and helped Jared Golden defeat Trump rubber-stamp and Big Pharma ally Bruce Poliquin:
…While campaigning for president, Trump pledged to take action to generally reduce drug prices and to allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for prescription medications. He then appointed a former pharmaceutical executive to run the Department of Health and Human Services, and slammed the Medicare negotiation concept after a meeting with pharmaceutical executives.
“I’ll oppose anything that makes it harder for smaller, younger companies to take the risk of bringing their product to a vibrantly competitive market,” Trump said. “That includes price-fixing by the biggest dog in the market, Medicare.”
While Trump has moved to allow limited negotiation in some parts of Medicare, he has rejected the larger policy he campaigned on, leaving it out of his prescription drug proposal released earlier this year.
Trump also passed a tax cut that benefited the pharmaceutical industry, but that has not corresponded with a drop in prescription drug prices. America First Policies launched an ad campaign to promote those tax cuts, and spent the end of the 2018 campaign promoting them. PhRMA also gave $1.5 million to the American Action Network, which aired an ad campaign in support of the tax-cut legislation.
Labels: Big Pharma, David Sirota, Jared Golden
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 5:00 AM
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Hang this one around the neck of obamanation. He had two years during which he could have pushed through single payer or medicare for all, but he was too busy being cool in his Presidential Jacket. Never once occurred to him to twist GOP arms to get what he wanted. But when you only read about Reagan and not FDR or LBJ, you are going to be the Republican's bitch.
Even without the PO or SP, obamanation and the democraps SHOULD have fixed W's Medicare Rx abomination that forbids using volume leverage for pricing advantage. He/they also refused to do that after obamanation vowed to phrma that he would never, ever impede their right to ratfuck americans to their heart's content.
"Note: Katie and Jared aren’t just garden variety Democrats who we’ll never hear from again; each is a proven leader who we can expect great things from in Washington"
Note: Katie and Jared's leadership capabilities are irrelevant since the speaker and his/her cadre of hand-picked and vetted committee chairs will NOT DO anything that displeases their big donors. See above for just one instance of proof.
Please, folks, every time DWT sings the praises of some individual democrap, just remember that everything that might actually get DONE has to flow through these carefully vetted committee chairs and the speaker. Katie, Jared, AOC, Pramila and the rest are impotent to affect that which they all ran on. DWT knows this, of course. DWT often kvetches about the putridity of the tyrants. But DWT also sheepdogs by indicating that these better-than-average democraps might make a diff.
They cannot. They are democraps.
Howie - the links within this post are all going to 404 file not found pages. At least the first four or five I tried. Can you repair? Thanks.
Trump is going to kill the American Medical system.
Just the other day, I refused a drug because the cost was too much out of my pocket. I know it works, because my doctor gave me samples to try while he fought with Cigna to get it approved. All they would do, however, was to leave me an expense of $80 EVERY MONTH for 30 pills. My usual co-pay is $4.
So, doctors. Ask yourselves: who are you going to treat when no one can afford you?
Doctors had to form coalitions to battle on fairly even ground with insurance after $hillbillarycare cratered. It cratered partly because insurance promised (fingers crossed) to manage their own cost increases (and made massive donations to congresswhores back in '93). Thus was created an additional profit layer called, at the time, 'managed care'. That was a lie that allowed insurance to lower the reimbursements to docs, hospitals and other providers -- take it or leave it. They took it but banded together to consolidate overhead and collectively "bargain" with insurance for a little higher reimbursements.
Many docs who resisted ended up teaching or doing something else. I had 3 personal docs leave their practices.
Those that are still working spend as much time writing letters to insurance pleading for some med or procedure to NOT be denied as they do treating their patients. I've had denials that cost me years waiting for 2 surgeries that I needed badly.
Docs and other providers continue to be squeezed by corporations. Corporations and their multiple profit layers continue to rake. Patients continue to pay more out of pocket, more for premia, WAAAAY more for meds and suffer from denials of actual CARE for the sake of the corporate profit raking.
What I see happening is a return to the days when 50K per year go bankrupt from medical debt; 10K suicides from pain/suffering due to denial/unaffordability of care; docs leaving practices; but, eventually, insurance profits will suffer because 60 million, then 100 million, then everyone... will no longer be able to afford it.
What obamneycare did for insurance (and phrma) was guarantee them power over the lives of 30 million new victims. It's a combo of enforced profitability AND bigger market share. It's a fascists' Valhalla.
the Nazis want to repeal it because a black guy did it. But insurance and phrma would be just as stupid as democrap voters if they didn't resist the repeal.
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