Congress Should Not Be Self-Regulatory-- Especially Not When It Comes To Determining What Is And What Is Not A Bribe

The Subcommittee on Health-- the members

This morning I was on David Feldman's radio show and people were happy I had shown the connection between committee chairman and immense bribery flows from special interests the day before. OK, let me follow up on that a bit then. Let me go back to the crucially important House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired, starting in a couple of weeks, by corrupt New Jersey machine hack Frank Pallone. Energy and Commerce has its fingers in a lot of pies-- as does the incoming chairman, Frank Pallone. This cycle his 5 biggest contributing sectors were sectors his committee writes legislation for:

• Health- $724,700
• Communications/Electronics- $333,451
• Finance- $214,450
• Labor- $187,525
• Energy and Natural Resources- $178,199

His biggest industries this cycle were health professionals, Pharmaceuticals and Telecom services, industries he will be writing legislation for in the next Congress. but career-long, this is what he's gotten from the sectors that are most eagle to influence him:

• Health- $6,067,900, the most of any member of the House, past or present!
• Communications/Electronics- $1,536,862
• Finance- $2,179,885
• Labor- $2,891,945
• Energy and Natural Resources- $862,516

I think I moved away from that $6,067,900 number too fast. Int deserves more attention-- and not just because of Pallone. According to its own website, "the Energy and Commerce Committee has the broadest jurisdiction of any authorizing committee in Congress. It legislates on a wide variety of issues, including:

• health care, including mental health and substance abuse
• health insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid
• biomedical research and development
• food, drug, device and cosmetic safety
• environmental protection
• clean air and climate change
• safe drinking water
• toxic chemicals and hazardous waste
• national energy policy
• renewable energy and conservation
• nuclear facilities
• electronic communications and the internet
• broadcast and cable television
• privacy, cybersecurity and data security
• consumer protection and product safety
• motor vehicle safety
• travel, tourism and sports
• interstate and foreign commerce

Since I have the PhRMA contributions broken down by member, courtesy of the Kaiser Health News-- and because pharmaceutical policy is so important for the committee and for tens of millions of Americans-- let's take a look at what kind of money from PhRMA comes flowing into the accounts of the members of the committee that write the legislation that impacts it. First the Republicans, who still run the committee for another couple of weeks. They are listed in order of seniority, starting with (outgoing) chairman Greg Walden and outgoing vice-chairman Joe Barton (followed by former chairman Fred Upton). The bolden names indicate members of the committee who are also members of the subcommittee on health. It's hard to miss this eye-popping bribes that have been showered on these ladies and gentlemen.

• Greg Walden (R-OR)- $883,542
• [Joe Barton (R-TX)- $408,500]
• Fred Upton (R-MI)- $930,040
• John Shimkus (R-IL)- $826,700
• Michael Burgess (R-TX)- $683,392
• [Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)- $440,917]
• Steve Scalise (R-LA)- $431,000
• Robert Latta (R-OH)- $159,500
• Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)- $271,250
• [Gregg Harper (R-MS)- $24,000]
• [Leonard Lance (R-NJ)- $574,000]
• Brett Guthrie (R-KY)- $480,550
• Pete Olson (R-FL)- $77,000
• David McKinley (R-WV)- $52,500
• Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)- $225,000
• Morgan Griffin (R-VA)- $80,500
• Gus Bilirakis (R-FL)- $145,250
• Bill Johnson (R-OH)- $66,500
• Billy Long (R-MO)- $146,500
• Larry Bucshon (R-IN)- $181,000
• Bill Flores (R-TX)- $98,362
• Susan Brooks (R-IN)- $155,500
• Makwayne Mullin (R-OK)- $85,000
• Richard Hudson (R-NC)- $169,500
• Chris Collins (R-NY)- $115,400
• [Kevin Cramer (R-ND)- $37,500]
• Tim Walberg (R-MI)- $23,000
• [Mimi Walters (R-CA)- $247,500]
• [Ryan Costello (R-PA)- $166,500]
• Buddy Carter (R-GA)- $85,000
• Jeff Duncan (R-SC)- $13,000

I suspect that when Alexandria Ocasio made that statement above, she had incoming chairman Pallone in mind, perhaps because he has been working furiously to sabotage the creation of a GreenNewDeal Select Committee, or-- at the very least-- working to make sure it has no real power. It's his turf and keeping that turf brings him immense amounts of money and the power that attends money. So... here are the Democrats on the committee, again, in order of seniority. And, again, the members of the subcommittee on health are bolded. I do want to especially call 3 members to your attention who agree with Ocasio that when you're working on legislation for a particular industry, you do not take contributions from that industry: Jan Schakowsky, Kathy Castor and John Sarbanes.

• Frank Pallone (D-NJ)- $840,700
• Bobby Rush (D-IL)- $14,000
• Anna Eshoo (D-CA)- $686,100
• Eliot Engel (D-NY)- $184,500
• [Gene Green (D-TX)]- $293,565]
• Diana DeGette (D-CO)- $455,659
• Mike Doyle (D-PA)- $65,000
• Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)- $4,500
• GK Butterfield (D-NC)- $346,985
• Doris Matsui (D-CA)- $211,700
• Kathy Castor (D-FL)- $15,000
• John Sarbanes (D-MD)- 0
• Jerry McNerney (D-CA)- $31,604
• Peter Welch (D-VT)- $55,000
• Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM)- $269,178
• Paul Tonko (D-NY)- $74,098
• Yvette Clarke (D-NY)- $70,000
• Dave Loebsack (D-IA)- $24,500
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)- $432,678
• Joe Kennedy (D-MA)- $216,494
• Tony Cárdenas (New Dem-CA)- $180,000
• Raul Ruiz (D-CA)- $138,262
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)- $311,500
• Debbie Dingell (D-MI)- $31,000

A little tangent will take us to the Senate for a minute and then we'll be back to the House. On Monday, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to Republican leaders of three Senate committees with jurisdiction over drug pricing issues, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Finance Committee Chairman-designate Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Judiciary Committee Chairman-designate Lindsey Graham (R-SC), calling for them to open investigations and hold hearings on allegations of price fixing behavior by generic drug manufacturers. She was reacting to a Washington Post report about allegations of price-fixing activities by generic drug manufacturers that one expert described as "most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States." According to these reports, "What started as an antitrust lawsuit brought by states over just two drugs in 2016 has exploded into an investigation of alleged price-fixing involving at least 16 companies and 300 drugs."

These allegations, if true, may help explain the numerous and increasingly troubling reports in recent years of rapid and unexplained price increases for generic drugs. While generic drugs have helped dramatically curbed healthcare expenditures, and are generally significantly less expensive than their branded counterparts, reported price spikes of 600%, 1000%, or more are profoundly troubling, and cause immense harm to patients in need.

The GAO in 2016 reported that over 300 generic drugs sold under the Medicare Part D program had at least one "extraordinary" price spike of over 100% in the five-year period from 2010-2015.

But evidence also suggests that generic drug markets are plagued by anti-consumer behavior and anti-competitive features that go far beyond high-profile price hikes of individual products. The industry is characterized by substantial consolidation: forty percent of generic drugs are now made by only one company, and the majority are made by one or two companies.

"If the allegations of price-fixing are true, they affect millions of Americans who purchase prescription drugs. The investigation should include the impact of such behavior on the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the Affordable Care Act, and the private health insurance market, as well as potential shortcomings in antitrust law and antitrust enforcement, and in the laws governing generic and biosimilar drug competition," wrote Senator Warren. "All of these issues are within your Committees jurisdiction, and Congress has a responsibility to investigate these concerns and legislate if necessary. 

The bicameral bill to address this was written by Warren and House Energy and Commerce Committee member (one of the clean ones), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). Remember, we mentioned above she's on the health subcommittee and does not take contributions from the Industrial Medical Complex. Their legislation, the Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act, would:

• Lower prices, increase competition, and address shortages in the market for prescription drugs through a newly established Office of Drug Manufacturing within HHS;
• Authorize the Office to manufacture generic drugs under these key conditions, where competition is lacking:

◦ No company is manufacturing the drug;
◦ Only one or two companies produce the drug, and the price has spiked or the drug is in shortage;
◦ Only one or two companies produce the drug, the price is a barrier to patient access, and the drug is listed as an “essential medicine” by the World Health Organization;

• Further authorize the Office to manufacture any drug that has been compulsorily licensed by the federal government;
• Require the Office to begin production of generic insulin within one year of enactment;
• Allow the Office to sell publicly-produced drugs at a fair price that covers manufacturing costs while taking into account the impact of price on patient access;
• Improve the ability of new companies to enter the generic drug market by authorizing the public manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients;
• Jump-start competition by directing the Office to offer to sell its manufacturing rights to any company that commits to keeping the product on the market at a fair price;
• Reserve any revenue generated from the sale of publicly-manufactured drugs for the use of the Office, making the office self-sustaining.

Looks like stuff that would be popular, right? Don't count it becoming law-- certainly not with the current Senate or the current occupant of the White House. And with this House... we're talking about a lot of money here. Let's see what Chairman Pallone does with this bill. We have already seen how he's trying to destroy the GreenNewDeal-- basically a plan that would would generate 100% of the nation’s electricity from clean, renewable sources within the next 10 years; upgrade the nation’s energy grid, buildings, and transportation infrastructure; increase energy efficiency; invest in green technology research and development; and provide training for jobs in the new green economy-- despite polling that shows 92% of Democratic voters and 64% of Republican voters want to see it move forward. That translates to 81% of registered voters saying they either support the plan.

Even a majority of self-described "conservative" Republicans back what the plan is attempting to accomplish. Yet, not a single Republican has signed on yet. So it isn't just Pallone, other turf-conscious chairmen and the Blue Dogs who oppose establishment of the select committee, but the GOP as well. The GOP doesn't get a vote. The Democrats decide this one on their own.

Back in the direction of health. Remember way back on Friday evening when a crackpot right-wing judge in Texas declared ObamaCare unconstitutional? And by morning, Señor Trumpanzee was celebrating. Republicans in Congress? Not so much... the dog had caught up with the car. So what happens next? I haven't herald many Republicans joining Trumpanzee in the celebration, despite the fact they had voted to repeal it literally dozens of times. They're very away that around 50 of their colleagues will not be back in Congress in January largely because of that opposition.

Pelosi: "Republicans are fully responsible for this cruel decision and for the fear they have struck into millions of families across America who are now in danger of losing their health coverage." Hopefully this will finally lead Democrats towards what they should have done instead of ObamaCare: Medicare-For-All. 124 Democrats in the House have signed onto H.R. 676, the Medicare-For-All bill, including almost all the members of the Energy and Commerce Committee-- but not Pallone.