In Pelosi-World Drug Manufacturers Come First-- Democratic Voters Can Eat Dirt

Pelosi and Pallone-- allies of the Sickness Industry... betrayers of Democratic voters

Two powerful Pelosi lieutenants, Frank Pallone (NJ)-- the corrupt head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee-- and Richard Neal (MA)-- the corrupt head of the House Ways and Means Committee-- have both painted primary targets on their own backs. I want to share some numbers before we proceed. Since 1990, this is how much Pallone and Neal have taken in legalistic bribes from the Health Sector:

• Frank Palone- $6,152,155 (#1 in Congress)
• Richard Neal- $2,515,526

Since 1990, this is how much Pallone and Neal have taken in legalistic bribes from the drug manufacturing industry:

• Frank Palone- $674,920 (#4 in the House)
• Richard Neal- $400,700

Since 1990, this is how much Pallone and Neal have taken in legalistic bribes from the pharmaceutical companies:

• Frank Pallone- $1,377,855 (#3 in the House)
• Richard Neal- $780,271

The lesson here is not that Pallone is even more corrupt than Neal; both are plenty corrupt. And both owe their success inside Pelosi's Democratic House caucus to the Sickness Industry, for which they are always doing favors and are about to help out again. Pelosi and Hoyer and their henchmen-- Pallone and Neal among them-- have promised the Sickness Industry to never allow Medicare-For-All the become law and have promised the drug industry to never seriously cut prices.

Tangent Warning: A drug I need is called locasamide (VIMPAT). Under Republican Medicare Part D, that used to cost me $3,000/month. Then I realized I could buy it in Thailand for $600/month (same drug made in the same factory). I bought a lot last time I was there and just ran out. On Monday, my doctor suggested we check with Medicare again, hoping the price had come down. It didn't. It went up and now costs $3,400/a month. Why? Because they can. Because Congress lets them. Luckily, I like Thailand a lot-- and Turkey, which is another country where it sells very inexpensively. It sells inexpensively everywhere in the world in fact, in except in our country.

Pelosi wants to lower the prices for drugs a little bit, a kind of sop for the base that put her in the speaker's chair again. As you know, she's better than a Republican. Democrats are better than Republicans. My grandfather once explained to me when I was very young that the only thing in politics worse than a Democrat-- and they were less horrible then than they are now-- is a Republican. Yesterday afternoon, The Hill reported that the progressives in the House who Pelosi is trying to neuter are pressuring Pallone and Neal "to support a far-reaching drug pricing bill that would allow the government to strip drug companies of their monopolies if they refuse to sell drugs at a reasonable price."

The progressives also pushed back on a competing proposal under discussion that would allow an outside arbiter to help set drug prices, warning that the idea would be too weak.

The meeting comes as House Democrats try to bridge a divide that has opened up within the party on the best way to move forward on lowering drug prices, one of their signature issues.

Lawmakers said the chairmen listened during the meeting and expressed openness to different ideas while not offering  a plan of their own.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) office is working on a drug-pricing proposal that would use arbitration, though lawmakers leaving the meeting Tuesday did not mention the Democratic leader when criticizing the arbitration idea.

Progressive Caucus leaders said a bill using arbitration-- instead of the stronger mechanism of stripping monopolies-- could lose many of their votes.

"There are members in our caucus who, if it comes out to be a weak arbitration bill that doesn't include a comprehensive list of drugs, I would have a hard time seeing something like that personally, as well as many other members," Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, said after the meeting.

Neal did not rule out the stronger bill that the progressives want, which is sponsored by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), when leaving the meeting.

Asked about that bill, Neal said, "All of these will be parts of the conversation, yeah, and I think the conversation is going to continue."

Asked if he is wedded to the idea of using an outside arbiter to set drug prices, Neal simply said, "No."

Doggett said leaving the meeting that it was a positive discussion and said he appreciated that the chairmen were not ruling out ideas.

"I don't view arbitration as really negotiation, it is just a way of shifting responsibility to an unaccountable third party," Doggett said. 

Earlier, Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), co-chair with Pocan of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, spoke for her members, saying "We wanted to make it very clear that it needs to be something bold that has teeth in it, and I think that’s what Rep. Doggett's bill has in it." Pelosi, who laughably claims to be a progressive because she once was a couple of decades ago, will not allow that. She would rather support the source bribery for her members from the Sickness Industry than fulfill her oath to the voters who put her party in power in the House.

Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) is standing up to Pelosi and Her PhRMA allies

When Doggett introduced the same bill, Medicare Negotiation and Competitive Licensing Act of 2018 (HR 6505), last year, he hard 104 co-sponsors. In February Doggett re-introduced the bill (H.R. 1046) and now has 122 co-sponsors, all the members of the House who are serious about lowering drug prices. Pelosi and her cronies are not among them and even though more than half the Democrats are behind the bill, she refuses to accept her caucus has moved on and left her in the policy dust.

Eva Putzova is a progressive Democrat running for a swing district seat in Arizona. The Democratic Party should be overjoyed. Instead toxic DCCC chair Cheri Bustos is snarling, menacing Eva's race, furious that she is challenging an "ex"-Republican Blue Dog, Tom O'Halleran, in a primary. Unlike the corrupt O'Halleran, Eva doesn't take corporate bribes-- and vows she never will. Yesterday she told us that she "will never accept a single penny from any corporation or a corporate PAC, because that's the only way we can ensure we legislate in the interest of the people and not corporations. We institutionalized, legalized and sanitized corruption and now we have to undo it by replacing incumbents who are bought by (not only) big PhRMA."

In 2020, San Francisco voters will have an alternative to Pelosi if she decides to run again. Shahid Buttar is, like she used to be many, many years ago, the real thing. "Prescription drug prices today reflect a broad-based market failure," he told me this morning, "and allow pharmaceutical firms to gouge patients forced to secure their medicines at any cost. Too many Americans  ultimately risk bankruptcy or homelessness simply because they fell ill. Arbitration is literally 'arbitrary,' and we need more powerful tools to ensure that medicines remain affordable. HR 1046 is a thoughtful and important proposal to subject companies enjoying regulated monopolies to consider the public interest when setting pharmaceutical prices. San Franciscans deserve a representative who will stand up for their right not to be preyed upon by drug companies instead of throwing us under the bus."

Tomas Ramos is a progressive community activist in the South Bronx, who is aiming to replace retiring Congressman Jose Serrano. Last night he told me that "It's unconscionable to think that there are lawmakers who don't deem it necessary to pass common sense legislation to rein in the reach of big PhARMA. I support the progressive caucus' efforts to clamp down on this industry, and I look forward to joining them once I'm elected."

Aside from Pelosi, others on her craven and disgraceful leadership team who want to feather the drug makers' nests-- and refuse to co-sponsor Doggett's legislation-- are Steny Hoyer (MD), Ben Ray Luján (NM), Jim Clyburn (SC), Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Cheri Bustos (IL), Frank Pallone (NJ), Richard Neal (MA) and Katherine Clark (MA). SHAME! Freshman members who have signed on and are backing their own constituents over Pelosi's allies at PhRMA are:

• AOC (NY)
• Ilhan Omar (MN)
• Rashiba Tlaib (MI)
• Ayassa Pressley (MA)
• Joe Neguse (CO)
• Katie Porter (CA)
• Andy Levin (MI)
• Katie Hill (CA)
• Jared Golden (ME)
• Andy Kim (NJ)
• Chuy Garcia (IL)
• Susan Wild (PA)
• Debra Haaland (NM)
• Veronica Escobar (TX)
• Ed Case (HI)
• Josh Harder (CA)
• Joseph Morelle (NY)
• Mary Gay Scanlon (PA)
• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (FL)
• Tom Malinowski (NJ)
• Antonio Delgado (NY)
• Gil Cisneros (CA)
• Abigail Spanberger (VA)
• Dean Phillips (MN)
• Max Rose (NY)
• Elissa Slotkin (MI)
• Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ)
• Jason Crow (CO)
• Susie Lee (NV)
• Sean Casten (IL)

Maybe someone should ask Central Valley freshman TJ Cox is he thinks voters in Bakersfield don't want more reasonable drug prices. Greg Stanton in Phoenix might be asked the same question. Ditto for "ex"-Republican Harley Rouda. Sure, Rouda is very, very wealthy but does he think voters in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach don't want fairer prices for the prescription drugs they need? Lucy McBath is nuts if she thinks voters in Alpharetta, Sandy Springs and Roswell only care about gun control and not also about high drug prices. Maybe Donna Shalala has been hibernating this month but voters in Miami want fair drug prices too and if she doesn't wake up and smell the roses she's going to wind up with even more time to sleep after November of 2020. The detestable Republican-lite brigade of Kendra Horn (OK), Sharice Davids (KS), Joe Cunningham (SC), Xochitl Torres Small (NM), Ben McAdams (UT), Chrissy Houlahan (PA), Angie Craig (MN), Jeff Van Drew (NJ), Colin Allred (TX), Elaine Luria (VA), Mikie Sherrill (NJ) and Anthony Brindisi (NY) can always be expected to oppose anything and everything that's good for working families; so why should fair drug prices be any different? Only primaries can save us from Pelosi and her team and the mindless freshmen who do whatever she says with no regard for the folks back home-- which is exactly why she gave Cheri Bustos the OK to squelch primaries.

What a shame that Pelosi, Hoyer and Bustos decided to skip the hearing-- just like Kevin McCarthy and other opponents of Medicare-For-All: