30 pieces of silver...

[Bread and Circus]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/internal-memo-confirms-bi_n_258285.html

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma

A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.

The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return.

It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.

In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: "Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion."

================================================

Who knows, perhaps the above is all hearsay and 100% bonafide B.S.

However, I doubt it.

If true, this amounts to one of the biggest sellouts that I can remember.

This all boils down to $100million in advertising...in other words 30 pieces of silver.

Unrecommend this all you want, but it's still just a matter of time till we find out the whole truth about all of this.

[blm]

1. Whenever Rahm, Schumer and Baucus are involved in an issue.....BEfockingWARE!

.

[Greyhound]

3. Get those three in the same place and we risk forming a singularity of corruption.

And we told them...

[quiet.american]

2. WH spokesman & PhRMA says this memo does *not* represent any deal that was made.

Edited: Re-read the article and now realize the only person saying it's accurate is a ***lobbyist***
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/internal-memo-confirms-bi_n_258285.html

"That is the PhRMA deal," said the lobbyist of the outline. He then clarified, "It was the PhRMA deal."

"Representatives from both the White House and PhRMA, shown the outline, adamantly denied that it reflected reality. PhRMA senior vice president Ken Johnson said that the outline 'is simply not accurate.' 'This memo isn't accurate and does not reflect the agreement with the drug companies," said White House spokesman Reid Cherlin.'

further....

"PhRMA's Johnson cast doubts on the provenance of the outline. "The memo, as described, is simply not accurate," he said in a statement. "Anyone could have written it. Unless it comes from our board of directors, it's not worth the paper it's written on. Clearly, someone is trying to short circuit our efforts to try and make health care reform a reality this year. That's not going to happen. Too much is at stake for both patients and the U.S. economy. Our new ads supporting health care reform are starting this week, and we are redoubling our efforts to drive awareness of why this issue is so important to America's future."

Johnson added that "no outside lobbyists -- not a single one -- were ever involved in our discussions with the Senate Finance Committee or the White House so someone is blowing smoke."

Now the lobbyist goes on to say, "that's bull" -- but since everyone in this story is mentioned by name except for the lobbyist - that doesn't give the lobbyist too much credibility.

[blm]

4. Wasn't that lobbyist Billy Tauzin, former D turned R?

.

[quiet.american]

6. As far as I can tell, the article doesn't name the lobbyist, but does --

-- but does mention Tauzin in relation to his now being the head of PhRMA.

[ProSense]

10. "said the lobbyist "?

The left is being played by lobbyists, who know if they create the impression that Phrma has a sweet deal, it will be opposed by those gullible enough to believe it.

Suddenly a memo appears?

Lobbyist are all hush-hush on Bush/Cheney deals, but they're all talk about alleged secret deals Obama made with an industry in non-secret meetings?

Think about it: What's in it for them? What do they gain by making a so-called secret deal public? What's the purpose of poisoning the debate?

This is the most ridiculous of all the lies and smears going around because it's being advanced by the left.

[quiet.american]

12. Bingo. nt

[progressoid]

5. Considering the amount of money on the line, I find it hard to believe that Pharma

hasn't been thrown a bone or two.

There is no way they are going to just sit back quietly and let some bill pass without their imput.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. Big pharma has been behind some pro health care reform ads and this doesn't

surprise me in the least.

[KittyWampus]

8. LOL! Any DU'ers who thought Pharmaceuticals wouldn't be thrown a bone are fools.

[quiet.american]

11. Of course we know deals are made in politics. But HuffPo does a disservice with this story.

A read of the whole sensationalized artcile boils its point down to:

Lobbyist insists memo he (or she) possesses ***was*** a deal made by WH.

Even the mysterious lobbyist concedes that this "deal" is no longer in play.

[Bread and Circus]

13. I've read about this at HuffPo, Robert Reich's Blog, the NYTimes...

and elsewhere.

Something happened and I haven't heard a direct and honest account from the President. All signs point out that fishy business is going on.

[quiet.american]

14. The HuffPo piece adds nothing to the subject, though. Their headline is quite misleading.

They're trumpeting this story as though it's the Downing Street Minutes -- and after reading every word of the piece, I'm almost convinced this "memo" was nothing more than a lobbyist wish list.

No doubt deals are being made, and our heads will probably explode over some of the details, but the HuffPo piece added nothing to the discussion.

[Bread and Circus]

16. /puzzled at best

[quiet.american]

18. /a bit puzzled about the remark on puzzlement... could you elaborate? :) nt

[Bread and Circus]

19. It sounds like you are saying there's some "there" there but not the HuffPo has

anything to say about what really is going on.

So, on one hand it seems you agree there's some shady dealmaking but not the stuff we are hearing about.

I guess I am /puzzled about what you are really getting at.

[quiet.american]

21. Ah. My point was that posting the HuffPo piece as basis for "30 Pieces of Silver..." doesn't work.

There's nothing substantial in the HuffPo piece upon which to base an implication that the WH has committed wholesale betrayal.

Now, I'm a longtime fan of Robert Reich and I've seen reports in the NYT, too, that make me wary that Pres. Obama is giving away substantial power to Big Pharma.

However, the HuffPo piece simply boils down to a lobbyist saying, take my word for it, this was the deal. Based on that, I'm not ready to get out the torch and pitchfork yet. :)

[Bread and Circus]

22. ...meh that's just one more piece of straw.... the 30 pieces of silver (ad dollars) is still apt imo

[quiet.american]

24. That's fine - I prefer to wait for substantiated facts, and I know there will be some compromises.

The extent of the compromises -- whether I can see them as genuine compromises in order to get everyone insured -- or just cave-ins to corporations -- will determine how outraged I'll be. :)

[Bread and Circus]

26. have you seen the memo? it's up at huffpo. do u think it's just a forgery?

[quiet.american]

27. You mean the photo of the plain piece of paper ?

The so-called memo as HuffPo is currently displaying it (as of this writing) has no visible letterhead, no To: or From:, no initialing, no signatures, nothing to tell us where this document is supposed to be internal to - it looks like someone's typed notes.

But even if it did have all those things, we have to take the word of an anonymous lobbyist that it **was** the deal.

Laughable.

I've said it before, HuffPo is HuffFaux on this one.

[Bread and Circus]

28. I just asked you if you think it's a forgery.

[quiet.american]

30. It doesn't even rise to that level. From what's shown, it's a faith-based piece of paper.

As in, "take it from me on good faith, this is an internal memo!"

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. Video - Harry & Louise 2009 ad for health care reform..check the

people responsible for it at the end -Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q1hPanrtGk

[Doctor_J]

15. Hartmann spent a lot of time on this today

He said this was to keep from getting hit with a 1/2-billion dollar smear campaign which would have killed health care altogether. As Thom put it, "A bunch of sociopaths were holding a (figurative) gun to his head". There was little he could do

make of that what you will

[Bread and Circus]

17. We elected Obama and Democratic majorities...that's our "referendum" on healthcare...

what I make of this is that our politics and politicians (Democrats included) are corrupt. This country is corrupt and immature and gets the bad governance it deserves.

I had a shred of hope in Obama..."maybe this time it will be different"...but no more. He's a great salesman for himself though.

We need a LEADER, not a facilitator-in-chief.

[krispos42]

20. If we just gave every congresscritter 5 million dollars, will they pass the damn thing?

Damn, it would be worth it. A one-time taxpayer bribe of 270 million to Congress for Universal Single-Payer health care.

I'll authorize it. Put the question on our 1040... I'll check the box and give a buck or two.

:grr:

[Bread and Circus]

23. LOL, that would work 100-0 in the senate for sure. It would still be cheaper

than what we are going to get.

[blm]

25. NO KIDDING!!! I've had that same thought every day for at least a few months now.

.

[TheKentuckian]

29. While I'm not going to jump in on this as fact

I'd say it would be smart to not try to take on the entire usury at once. Splitting the pack is pretty much the only thing that can be done, otherwise you're forced to overcome too damn much money.


You think TDR didn't want to crush trusts into oblivion? He did all that could be done which still left them pretty damn over-powered and an eternal threat to democracy. There is realistically only so much fighting the power anyone can do, especially in one gulp. From the tone of many posters, Obama should have already broken the corporations and have us well on the way to a country that matches it's espoused ideals.

Those of you that think anywhere along that line are blind to how fucked and out of control We, The People are.