Ryan Grim reports documentation of earlier reports that the Obama WH made a behind the scenes deal with Big Pharma: HuffPo got hold of a WH memo on the outcome of the meeting.
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.
There's more, much more.
Fascinating question is who (it is a lobbyist) leaked the memo--and why.
Via Jane Hamsher, where a commenter noted that Dan Froomkin has started at HuffPo this past week (right?) and wonders if there's some connection between a scoop like this and his presence.
Jane seemed a tad upset, especially about the way the memo spells out that Obama's "savings" for the average family are merely slower cost increases. But that's been obvious.
Is this a smoking gun memo? We shall see. How will the big blog boosters react? And will the Big Papers report on something HuffPo uncovered? (Eat your heart out, WaPo news editors.)
This memo is all the more reason to support Rep Anthony Weiner and his single payer Medicare for All...with a robust private option.
This kind of negotiating should be telling even the OFB
something: that Obama just isn't that into actual health CARE. Digital record keeping and insurance, sure. Actual delivery of care at the best cost to the nation? Doesn't look like it....
And the NYTimes is reporting Obama's been making "behind the scenes" deals all along, mostly with Baucus.
Some legislation is actually worse than nothing. This is looking more and more (well, if there ever is a bill we the public get to see before it's passed) like one of the worse than nothing.
Medicare for All...the bailout for the rest of us.
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Update: Nicole Sandler comments at HuffPo that she will interview Grim tonight at 11PM.
Ryan Grim will join me tonight on Air America radio at 11pm ET (streaming live at www.airamerica.com/listen) to talk about this story... What a giant Cluster F@*k
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The HuffPo comments are interesting, three camps emerging:
1) HuffPo reporter was punked by...oh, the WH. And the memo is in Courier so it can't be real. Shades of Dan Rather and the BushBoy National Guard docs. Oh, and the HuffPo reporter is trying to bring down Obama, etc. No one should believe this is a real memo....
2) This is the real Obama and Bronx cheer to the True Believers.
3) This is 11-dimensional chess and it's all going to work out...or not.
Good times at the HuffPo!
"savings"
It's not only obvious, it's what he's actually been saying - that's what "bending the curve" is all about. You take a curve that is increasing steeply, and "bend" it so that it increases less steeply. (Although he, and other people defending whatever the hell his plan is, often use language that is more suggestive of actual cost reductions, especially when talking about Medicare. [Hmm.])
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We can't afford not to have single-payer!
This Isn't Really New
Sure, the details are new, but the "deal" Obama announced with Big Pharma always stank.
Hey, at least the A-list kept their powder dry and didn't go out and flog Obama's plan without getting commitments from him on what exactly it all meant.
And they said single payer was kabuki.
What a clusterfuck.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
He himself said it
People see in him what they want to see.
I know what I've gained. Dammit.
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We can't afford not to have single-payer!
memo confirms it was a WHITE HOUSE (not just Senate) deal ...
is that the meeting described by the memo took place in the White House (see this WSJ story from July 7th). The White House explanation was that they were just going along with a deal negotiated by Baucus -- but the WSJ story, and this memo, shows that the White House met with upper level executives from five drug companies.
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What is most interesting is who isn't reported to be at the meeting -- Tauzin. Best guess is that Tauzin is the "lobbyist" who the lobby was written for....
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The other interesting aspect of this story is that not even Kent Conrad or Olympia Snowe were in on the negotiations that resulted in this deal -- Baucus (apparently) came up with it by himself. Does this sound as fishy to others as it does to me, and that Baucus was charged with negotiating the deal for the White House?
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One other note -- I just looked up the Finance Committee members -- it turns out that there is a health care subcommittee. and the only democrat that is part of the "gang of six" doing all the 'bipartisan' negotiating is Bingaman. Neither Conrad nor Baucus are on the health care subcommittee -- and the chair of the subcommittee is shot out of the negotiations on the bill.
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Does this strike anyone else as exceedingly odd -- that its extremely unlikely that the Health Care Subcommittee members, and its Chairperson, would simply hand over without objection control of the most important domestic legislation in a couple of decades? Something is very fishy here, if you ask me....
Haw
Pony
-piners and Big Pharma are both hoping for the best. The beauty part is, neither will be disappointed... because the former can't and the latter won't: