Biden And His Lobbyist Coterie Will Fight Hard To Deny Americans Medicare-For-All

News from Bernie or from Elizabeth Warren almost always involves policy initiatives. News from the two top-ranked conservatives almost never does. It's either some rote attack on Trump or something about money. Yesterday, CNN ran a typical piece about how Biden gets most of the super-rich Democrats but how McKinsey Pete is the second choice in these circles-- for when Biden self-destructs. Status Quo Joe "drew dozens of Barack Obama's fundraisers to his presidential bid during the April-to-June fundraising quarter, but his rivals-- led by South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg-- also are capturing some of those elite bundlers... At least 40 top fundraisers to Obama's 2012 reelection effort donated to Buttigieg's campaign during the three-month period, helping to catapult the once little-known mayor to the top financial tier. Buttigieg raised nearly $25 million during the second quarter, outpacing Biden and all his other competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination. In interviews this week, several Obama bundlers said the 37-year-old Buttigieg has energized a wide range of political donors." Energizing that crowd means saying this-- in private usually-- like what Biden accidentally said in public: "I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who has made money. The truth of the matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change."

You're not going to hear that from Bernie. That's essential, unadulterated Status Quo Joe Biden. Last week Alex Kotch reported for Sludge that Biden's not going to take up Bernie's challenge to reject bribes from PhRMA and the insurance industry. As Bernie said, "If we are going to break the stranglehold of corporate interests over the health care needs of the American people, we have got to confront a Washington culture that is corrupt-- that puts profits ahead of the needs of the American people."

If Biden were to sign on to Bernie’s pledge, he’d need to turn off the spigot of health industry executive donations that are flowing into his campaign. According to a Sludge review of Biden’s second-quarter campaign finance report, at least 15 top executives of pharmaceutical and health insurance companies made large donations to the campaign.

These include maximum donations of $2,800 from Dan Hilferty, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield (and another $2,800 from his wife, Joan); Donald Giancursio, CEO of insurer UnitedHealth Group’s operations in Idaho, Nevada, and Utah; Daniel Tropeano, CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s Delaware and Pennsylvania branches; and Brant Binder, a director and founder of Psy Therapeutics. Robert Fallon, CEO of Phosplatin Therapeutics, gave the Biden campaign $4,350, which includes $1,550 for the general election if Biden wins the primary.

In his Washington speech, Sanders suggested that presidential candidates who might refuse to return contributions like these should explain why pharma and insurance CEOs think their donations are “good investments.”

Much of Biden's family make their livings as slime-bag lobbyists, trading on his name. And the bribes work. Kotch wrote that in "In January 2018, the Center for Responsive Politics found that the more campaign cash that members of Congress received from drug and health insurance company PACs, the less likely they would be to support single-payer legislation. Pharmaceutical and health insurance companies also make big donations to outside groups such as the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future that spend money to advance the industry’s interests."

Any Democrat who endorses Biden is endorsing a candidate who will sabotage any movement towards Medicare-for-All. Watch that as the establishment starts cracking the whip for him. No one is surprised that one early endorser is healthcare lobbyist, disgraced former Senator Tom Daschle. Among current congress members are conservatives like Stephen Lynch (New Dem-MA), who also voted against ObamaCare, Lisa Blunt Rochester (New Dem-DE), Al Lawson (New Dem-FL), Filemon Vela (Blue Dog-TX), Don McEachin (New Dem-VA)... all anti-Medicare conservatives.

Meanwhile, here's who the Obama bundlers gave to, basically all the conservatives, none to the progressives:

Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are on the top of every chart-- except the one about who the rich people gave their money to. A lot of that is because of Medicare-For-All. Bernie is running because of it and he'll fight for. Biden will fight too-- to stop it. His former chief of staff, now campaign chairman, Steve Ricchetti, is a greasy, crooked lobbyist for the Sickness Industry. It doesn't matter if you look among Republicans or Democrats, you're not going to find anyone more likely to oppose Medicare-for-All than Ricchetti, the advisor Biden depends on most. Last week, writing for the American Prospect, David Dayen reported that "Ricchetti founded and ran his own lobbying firm with his brother. He personally represented drugmakers Novartis, Eli Lilly and Sanofi (the latter two are among the three major insulin manufacturers), as well as health IT company NaviMedix (now NaviNet) and the American Hospital Association. The hospital lobby, as well as pharmaceutical companies, have been primary opponents of Medicare for All. The Ricchetti firm continues to operate, with Ricchetti’s brother actively lobbying for clients, including in the health-care space."

A report in the Philadelphia Inquirer last month highlighted a June 11 lunch reception with Jill Biden, the former vice president’s wife, at the venerable Acorn Club in Center City Philadelphia. Attendees shelled out at least $500 a pop, “with a $5,000 price tag for those interested in a private briefing with Biden campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti,” the Inquirer wrote. The paper sourced this selling of access to an email from Comcast senior executive vice president David L. Cohen, who offered up his home for a high-dollar Biden fundraiser on his first day as a candidate.

...Ricchetti, a Cleveland native, is a quintessential figure in the turn-of-the-century Democratic Party. His private-sector career led to him running the political department for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association from 1987 to 1989. He rotated onto the other side of politics as the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 1990 to 1992, and then joined the Clinton administration.

He was the chief liaison between the White House and the Senate in Clinton’s first term, helping to pass the Clinton budget and the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which facilitated numerous corporate takeovers of Big Media.

In 1996, the revolving door spun again and Ricchetti served as a corporate lobbyist at Public Strategies Washington. In 1998, Steven and his brother Jeff (who followed in Steve’s footsteps as the top lobbyist for Blue Cross and Blue Shield), opened a lobbying firm that they later sold to the high-powered Podesta Group, then known as podesta.com. At the time, John Podesta was White House chief of staff, and his brother Tony Podesta was a top lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, or PhRMA. Jeff Ricchetti went to work for Tony Podesta; Steve went back to the White House to work for John.

...After the Clintons left the White House, Ricchetti fully cashed out, building Ricchetti Inc. with his brother. Armed with a long rolodex, the brothers grabbed a large slice of corporate America as clients, including AT&T, General Motors, defense contractor United Technologies, the American Council of Life Insurers, and the American Bankers Association. But health care was always a large part of the business, with multiple drug companies, insurance associations, and hospital trade groups signing on.

The Podesta ties also continued; until 2012, Ricchetti was on the board of the Center for American Progress, which John Podesta founded in 2003.

Ricchetti Inc. is still going strong. Jeff Ricchetti has lobbied the Senate this year for clients like pharmaceutical company Eisai, patent-buying firm Intellectual Ventures Inc., and the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting.

Steve Ricchetti worked for Hillary Clinton on the 2008 campaign, bundling donations as a “Hillraiser.” The Obama campaign attacked him for obtaining a special earmark from Clinton when she served the Senate on behalf of General Motors. But Ricchetti reportedly got crosswise with Clintonworld when he brought up the issue of Bill’s extra-marital affairs during an internal meeting. When Clinton lost, Ricchetti tried to find a way in with Obama. He tried to get a job in the White House and then with then-CIA director Leon Panetta before landing with Biden as a counselor to the vice president. In 2013, Ricchetti replaced Bruce Reed as Biden’s chief of staff.

The Obama administration had put in place ethics laws barring lobbyists from joining until they had spent at least two years off K Street. Ricchetti de-registered as a lobbyist at the end of 2008 to get around those rules. But he still “advised clients on public policy, communications strategy and grass-roots efforts,” as Biden’s office acknowledged at the time. This is an old trick, to de-register as a lobbyist while still performing all of the functions of lobbying as an unregistered “adviser.” In 2011, Richetti earned $1.8 million from his lobbying firm, despite not technically being a lobbyist. He listed on a disclosure form working for twenty different corporate clients that year.

Ricchetti was the driving force behind Biden’s potential presidential run in 2016. He ran meetings and hit up donors in advance of that eventually curtailed campaign. When Biden left office, Ricchetti signed on as managing director for the Penn Biden Center, where several expats from Bidenworld landed.

As the 2020 talk ramped up, Ricchetti was at the center of it. He was referenced by the Associated Press in an early deliberation in February about a presidential run. In March, the New York Times reported that Ricchetti, labeled a “strategist,” was calling around to “would-be candidates and their aides to signal that the former vice president is likely to enter the race.” In April, The Intercept noted that Ricchetti was coordinating the presidential campaign.

Biden’s health-care plan would increase Affordable Care Act subsidies and move millions eligible for expanded Medicaid into a government-run public option. In recent days, Biden has made defending Obamacare, from the right and left, the tentpole of his campaign, calling Medicare for All a “totally risky” plan that would unravel hard-fought gains.

Health-care changes that fall short of Medicare for All would benefit the hospital industry in particular, giving them a large share of patients paying private rates. That would benefit the American Hospital Association, one of Ricchetti’s former clients. The AHA is a member of the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, the main coalition opposing single payer. Another coalition partner of the anti-single payer lobby is the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, whose members include Novartis, Eli Lilly, and Sanofi, all former Ricchetti clients.

Biden has his hands full with Kamala and the who conservatives auditioning for his cabinet, are the ones who have been most vocal about attacking Bernie... ineffectively. Delaney and Frackenlooper-- both polling at under 1%-- have kept up a barrage of attacks against Bernie and his policies, especially Medicare-For-All, Yet Bernie is the most admired candidate running and Frackenlooper and Delaney are among the most disliked. Americans are way ahead of Biden and his crowd on this-- even Republicans: