Do You Think That Trump Is The Only One Motivated By Corruption In The Battle Over Drug Prices? Wake Up

Medicare-for-All Will Never Pass And Drug Prices Will Remain High Until Pelosi And Wendell Primus Are Gone From Congress

The public-- Republicans, Democrats, Independents, non-voters-- everyone wants cheaper drug prices, but the prices continue to rise. The public wants Congress to do something about it. But nothing-- a whole lot of nothing-- is getting done. PhRMA charges what the market lets them get away with. As Sam Baker pointed out in Politico over the weekend, "the most expensive drug in the world-- a gene replacement therapy that treats spinal muscular atrophy-- came to market earlier this year, with a sticker price of $2.1 million in the U.S. That drug is a groundbreaking new therapy, but prices also continue to rise for old, familiar products that people depend on every day-- most notably, insulin

This week, the House is going to vote on a very modest and unsatisfactory bill that Pelosi has been pushing and that progressives are embarrassed over. Trump prefers Chuck Grassley's Senate bill, which McConnell isn't thrilled with and which the right won't vote for. To pass it, it would take a lot of arm-twisting of conservative Republicans that Trump will never do, plus all the right-of-center and moderate Democrats. And then it would have pass the House. Big PhRMA opposes all the bills-- especially the effective one, H.R.1046 that Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) introduced and is backed by 127 Democratic co-sponsors. Doggett's bill is the only one that would crack down on PhRMA and it is being backed by Democrats from progressives like AOC (NY), Barbara Lee (CA), Ro Khanna (CA), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Raul Grijalva (AZ), Ayanna Pressley (MA), Jerry Nadler (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Katie Porter (CA), Jamie Raskin (MN), Ted Lieu (CA), Rashid Tlaib (MI), Andy Levin (MI), and Jan Scxhakowsky (IL) to even some of the most cowardly conservatives like Charlie Crist (Blue Dog-FL), Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI), Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY), Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL), Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA), Gil Cisneros (New Dem-CA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (New Dem-FL), Stephen Lynch (New Dem-MA) and Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA).

Back to Politico: "The big picture: The pharmaceutical industry almost always gets its way in Washington. The industry's top two trade organizations, together, spent more than $35 million on lobbying in 2018, more than they've ever spent before. That doesn't include individual companies' contributions, nor does it include any of the industry's campaign contributions, which are substantial."

Cenk Uygur, the progressive reform candidate running for the open congressional seat in a district in the suburbs north of Los Angeles (CA-25) told us this morning that "Drug companies don't give politicians money for charity, they do it to buy them. And unfortunately it works. Everyone knows these are bribes. The only people who won't acknowledge it are corporate politicians on both sides and the corporate media. This is a sick system that lets people die for profit. Any politician that takes money from the drug companies is selling out their voters on behalf of their donors."

This is a list of current House members who have taken the most in bribes from the health sector (which includes Big PhRMA) since 1990. All of them have been in top leadership and committee positions to prevent any movement on meaningful reform. All of them belong in prison:

• Frank Pallone (D-NJ)- $6,610,354
• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)- $4,970,630
• Michael Burgess (R-TX)- $4,466,629
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $4,403,284
• Fred Upton (R-MI)- $4,276,714
• Kevin Brady (R-TX)- $3,611,054
• Greg Walden (R-OR)- $3,468,191
• Anna Eshoo (D-CA)- $3,207,836
• John Shimkus (R-IL)- $3,026,262
• Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)- $2,944,209
• Ron Kind (D-WI)- $2,869,860
• Richard Neal (D-MA)- $2,869,426

On Friday, Adam Cancryn and Sarah Karlin-Smith, writing for PoliticoPro, reported that House progressive leaders were testing support for an effort to block Pelosi’s bill, "amid rising frustration over the crafting of the Democrats’ signature legislation.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus circulated a questionnaire asking its members if they would be willing to oppose a procedural vote on the bill-- effectively stalling the top Democratic priority-- unless Pelosi agrees to make a series of changes moving it further left, or allow votes on progressive amendments." Pelosi, who has a bizarre relationship with Big PhRMA and with their lobbyists and "ex"-lobbyists, hit the ceiling.

Few progressives have publicly suggested opposing the drug pricing legislation up until now, even as they complained of being locked out of negotiations over its specifics. The Progressive Caucus has struggled in the past to marshal its diverse membership against major Democratic priorities, and Pelosi’s drug pricing bill is seen as key to keeping Democratic control of the House in 2020.

But progressives' anger with top Democrats reached a new pitch Friday, after Politico reported that leadership weakened a key provision authored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and approved by the Education and Labor Committee in October.

“I don’t know why I’m having to fight so hard for an amendment that already passed through committee,” Jayapal said.

The bill originally directed the federal government to study how it could require drugmakers to refund money to employer-sponsored health plans when the companies raised prices above the inflation rate-- and then issue regulations based on those conclusions.

Yet in a private meeting with advocacy groups on Thursday, top aides led by Pelosi health adviser Wendell Primus said they were cutting the regulations mandate, effectively reducing it to a simple call for a study, people who were in the room said.

You may have noticed that Blue America is in the middle of a fundraiser for Pramila's campaign. It's because of this kind of thing that we're trying to help her. Who else is going to stand up to Primus who is exactly as anti-healthcare as any garden variety Republican. There is no presence more detrimental to healthcare policy in Congress than Wendell Primus. You can help-- and maybe win a Nirvana gold record award-- by clicking on the Blue America Nirvana thermometer above.

Cancryn and Karlin-Smith continued that "Progressives have unsuccessfully pressed leadership for months to make changes in the bill that would fully eliminate the ban on Medicare’s ability to directly negotiate drug prices, increase the number of drugs the government can target for direct negotiation and make negotiated prices available to the uninsured." Big PhRMA's man inside Pelosi's office warned that Pramila and other progressives are "gravely misreading the situation if they try to stand in the way of the overwhelming hunger" for Pelosi's bill that most people view as slightly better than nothing.

The last-minute changes have left liberals irate over what they characterized as a leadership attempt to steamroll the left wing on a top priority.

Leaders had vowed to allow rank-and-file members to help shape the bill for months, they said, only to speed the legislation to the floor in the final weeks of the year. Now, they said, they were quietly watering down language that progressives touted as the element that justified supporting a bill they otherwise saw as far too timid.

“For many of my residents at home, constantly there’s this lack of a sense of urgency they feel is coming out of this chamber,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). “If we’re not going to take this head-on right away, it’s not going to make a difference.”

In an interview, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) characterized the drug pricing bill as the latest in a string of issues where Democratic leaders ignored progressive lawmakers.

Meanwhile, Doggett, the congressman from Texas who actually wrote the good drug pricing legislation said "I've tried to be positive throughout this and talk about improving the bill, rather than opposing the bill, but it would be really difficult to vote for it if no improvements are made... We are setting the standard, we are setting the model for what a Democratic president would do on prescription drugs."