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."

The DMV Nightmare: Report And Tips From The (Long) Lines

Tales from a three-hour wait: What you can do to avoid making it even worse.
-by Reese Erlich

Perhaps you’ve heard the horror stories of people waiting five hours to renew their driver licenses at the always friendly California Department of Motor Vehicles? Well, there’s some good news. It’s down to three.

I don’t intend to analyze the myriad ways the state government has screwed up the DMV. Nor will I explain why the agency is seemingly unprepared for the new federal requirements to obtain a Real ID, which will be one form of identification accepted when boarding domestic flights after Oct 1, 2020.

My intention is to walk you through the DMV maze, avoid my mistakes and help you get through with a minimum of homicidal intentions towards the otherwise hard-working employees at the DMV.

Getting to the right window

First, make an advance appointment if you possibly can. And do it many months before your license expires. Mine expired in July, but when I went online, I couldn’t get an appointment until one week before my renewal date!

So I decided to risk showing up at the DMV without an appointment. Reportedly, the best days are Wednesdays and Saturdays. (Hint #1: check to see if your DMV office is open on Saturdays.)

On Saturday I arrived at the Oakland DMV office on Claremont Ave. at 7:45 am, 15 minutes before the office opened. Seventy-five people stood ahead of me in line. A very nice DMV worker with a huge white mustache directed people seeking car registration to a shorter line. Everyone else just waited.

Once inside those with appointments or with disabilities went to the faster line. Those without appointments waited in another. When I finally got to see a clerk, she checked my documents. If you are applying for the Real ID version of the driver’s license, you need a slew of documents. If you don’t need the Real ID, you can just apply for or renew your regular driver’s license.

The clerk directed me to fill out an application on one of their computers. (Hint #2: with an advanced appointment, you can fill out the form at home.) These are the same computers used to take the driver’s license written test. When finished, I got a code number.

Haywire computers

Here’s where things went haywire. I was told to stand in one line when I should have stood in another. I finally found the right line, handed in my application code number and was given a waitlist number.

It’s like taking a number at a deli but without the pastrami sandwich at the end. I was prepared for a long wait. Numbers are constantly called out and posted on an electronic board, but there’s no logical order. “G003, G015, B012, F101.”

I waited and read the New York Times. My number wasn’t called. I read the Wall Street Journal. My number wasn’t called. I started reading my novel. Finally, I asked an employee what was happening. She came back to report that I had missed my number and would need a new one.

I may not be the brightest bulb in the DMV lighting system, but I can hear a number being called and read it on a board. “I003” was never called. I had just wasted over an hour. The clerk gave me another number. (Hint #3: ask how long the wait should be when you get the number, and ask them if it goes much longer than that.)

You’re really just starting

My new number was called, and when I arrived at Window 4, I realized that the process had really just begun. I took the eye test. (I passed with flying eyeballs except for that pesky last letter in line C4.) I presented all my documents. But the DMV bar code machine wouldn’t read any of my bar codes, including those on my passport and current driver’s license. Window 4 lady couldn’t even call up my file using my name.

Luckily, I had brought the notice requiring my license renewal, and it had a bar code that worked. (Hint #4: bring every conceivable document, notice and letter sent you by the DMV.) I paid $36 (Check or cash only. No credit cards or bitcoin.) The very nice Window 4 lady pointed me towards the camera lady.

There was no one at the camera line, and it turns out, the camera line was open further down. I had time to study the walls. The office is filled with signs saying “No cell phones.” But the young man in the hoodie standing in front of me talked on the phone for 15 minutes, providing a friend with a play-by-play account of standing in line at the DMV.

When he got to the camera lady, she suggested that he might want to hang up now, which he did.

I respected the woman’s attitude. She could have made a nasty reference to the no cell phone signs or even called security. Instead, the situation was resolved without rancor. (Hint #5: local police departments, please note that not all laws have to be enforced with a nasty attitude all the time.)

More computer problems

When I got my turn with the camera lady, my file didn’t show up on her computer. She walked over to Window 4 lady to get her to hand carry the missing information to the camera area. She then printed out a document and told me the license would be sent in 2-2 1/2 weeks. Next!

“Only one problem,” I explained, “I have to take the written driver’s license test.” Apparently, there was no mention of that in the cockamamie DMV computer system. I’m not sure what would have happened had I just skipped the test. But I wasn’t going to spend another half day at the DMV finding out.

Besides I had really crammed by taking practice tests at home. I knew about speed limits behind school buses and the legality of running down slow-moving pedestrians. (Hint #6: the practice tests contain some of the actual questions on the test. So take as many practice tests as you can stomach.)

You’re supposed to take the test standing by yourself in front of a computer. It’s like voting by machine, but with less privacy and greater consequences. I saw two people at two different computers answering questions together. Apparently, the DMV really wants you to pass the test.

I passed the test and, without anyone directing otherwise, was about to leave. Luckily the man at Window 29 noticed my confusion and informed me I had to get one final document before departure. It was my temporary license. I now had proof that I had applied. Thank you Window 29 man.

In retrospect, the procedures actually made sense.

DMV workers were mostly patient and helpful. But in my experience the computer glitches doubled the wait time.

In addition, the Claremont Ave DMV in Oakland has one of the fastest response times in the state. The San Francisco office currently estimates a four-hour wait for people without appointments. The DMV has made progress in processing applications but still has a long way to go.