“Obama On Drugs: 98% Cheney?”
By Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy on August 15, 2009 at 6:30 PM in CNN, Current Affairs, Dick Cheney, Energy Policy Act of 2005, Health Care, President Barack Obama, Universal Health Care
The other day, I saw a post by Greg Palast, one he originally wrote for Huffington Post. When you read it, you will see why that is kind of funny. I wonder how they responded to it over there? I’m not about to go there and give them the traffic to find out - I’ll just use my imagination!
Anyway, the article, Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?, is a very good piece on Obama’s Drug Deal. I mean, about the deals cut for big Pharmaceutical companies in the current health care bill. And here’s there thing - Palast actually has some background in this area. From his site: Palast studied healthcare economics at the Center for Hospital Administration Studies at the University of Chicago. Here’s what Palast has to say:
Eighty billion dollars of WHAT?I searched all over the newspapers and TV transcripts and no one asked the President what is probably the most important question of what passes for debate on the issue of health care reform: $80 billion of WHAT?
On June 22, President Obama said he’d reached agreement with big drug companies to cut the price of medicine by $80 billion. He extended his gratitude to Big Pharma for the deal that would, “reduce the punishing inflation in health care costs.”Hey, in my neighborhood, people think $80 billion is a lot of money. But is it?
I checked out the government’s health stats (at HHS.gov), put fresh batteries in my calculator and totted up US spending on prescription drugs projected by the government for the next ten years. It added up to $3.6 trillion.
In other words, Obama’s big deal with Big Pharma saves $80 billion out of a total $3.6 trillion. That’s 2%.
Hey thanks, Barack! You really stuck it to the big boys. You saved America from these drug lords robbing us blind. Two percent. Cool!
Wowie zowie - what a GREAT job Obama did as “Haggler-in-Chief”!! A whole whopping 2%? Over TEN YEARS????? Great, Obama - thanks!! Sheesh:
For perspective: Imagine you are in a Wal-Mart and there’s a sign over a flat screen TV, “BIG SAVINGS!” So, you break every promise you made never to buy from that union-busting big box - and snatch up the $500 television. And when you’re caught by your spouse, you say, “But, honey, look at the deal I got! It was TWO-PERCENT OFF! I saved us $10!”But 2% is better than nothing, I suppose. Or is it?
The Big Pharma kingpins did not actually agree to cut their prices. Their promise with Obama is something a little oilier: they apparently promised that, over ten years, they will reduce the amount at which they would otherwise raise drug prices. Got that? In other words, the Obama deal locks in a doubling of drug costs, projected to rise over the period of “savings” from a quarter trillion dollars a year to half a trillion dollars a year. Minus that 2%.
We’ll still get the shaft from Big Pharma, but Obama will have circumcised the increase.
Well, that’s a nice turn of phrase. And accurate. Here’s what the Great Haggler got for that:
And what did Obama give up in return for $80 billion? Chief drug lobbyist Billy Tauzin crowed that Obama agreed to dump his campaign pledge to bargain down prices for Medicare purchases. Furthermore, Obama’s promise that we could buy cheap drugs from Canada simply went pffft!What did that cost us? The New England Journal of Medicine notes that 13 European nations successfully regulate the price of drugs, reducing the average cost of name-brand prescription medicines by 35% to 55%. Obama gave that up for his 2%.
The Veterans Administration is able to push down the price it pays for patent medicine by 40% through bargaining power. George Bush stopped Medicare from bargaining for similar discounts, an insane ban that Obama said he’d overturn. But, once within Tauzin’s hypnotic gaze, Obama agreed to lock in Bush’s crazy and costly no-bargaining ban for the next decade.
What else went down in Obama’s drug deal? To find out, I called C-SPAN to get a copy of the videotape of the meeting with the drug companies. I was surprised to find they didn’t have such a tape despite the President’s campaign promise, right there on CNN in January 2008, “These negotiations will be on C-SPAN.”
This puzzled me. When Dick Cheney was caught having secret meetings with oil companies to discuss Bush’s Energy Bill, we denounced the hugger-muggers as a case of foxes in the henhouse.
Cheney’s secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots were creepy and nasty and evil.
But the Obama crew’s secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots were, the President assures us, in the public interest.
We know Cheney’s secret confabs were shady and corrupt because Cheney scowled out the side of his mouth.
Obama grins in your face.
See the difference?
The difference is 2%.
Ah, yes - that would be the difference alright. A paltry 2% with a Cheshire Grin to go with it. Perfect. That’s the “Change” for which I was “Hoping.” Seems to me that someone has been hitting that “Hopium” pipe if he expects us to accept THIS gift to the big Pharma Companies. I wonder if there is coverage for THAT under his new plan?
Oh, and Palast had this attached to his post:
ALERTNow it’s Let’s Make a Deal with hospital lobbyists.
First, the President was caught with his principals down, cutting a scuzzy back-room deal with pharmaceutical lobbyist Billy Tauzin to limit drug price savings to just 2% over 10 years (see attached, “Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?”), the New York Times today reports that another deal was sealed by lobbyist Chip Kahn of the American Hospital Association.
Here are the numbers they don’t want you to see: Hospitals will be allowed to hike their prices and revenues by six trillion dollars ($5,853 billion) over the next ten years, only $155 billion less than they had projected before the Obama “reform.”
In all, the Obama back-room deal will “reduce” our $26 trillion total hospital bill over the next decade by one-half of one percent.
Once again, the lobbyists got the gold mine, the public got the shaft.
Say it ain’t so, Mr. President.
Great. More smoke and mirrors from the Great Concessioner (is that a word?) - in - Chief on our behalf. That’s just jake, Mr. Obama.
One last thing, I don’t know this for sure, but my guess is that Huffington Post isn’t gonna be publishing any more of Greg Palast’s work. Just a hunch…
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The more things change, the more they stay the same. That One certainly sold the ones who voted for him a pig in a poke.
Yes, but, don’t forget, he saved them 2% on the price of pork in the deal.
LMAO. Gee, where will the bots spend all that money?
RRRA, another outstanding piece, thank you! You put it out there so I can explain it to my Obot family and friends. They don’t read much, which is what got us into this mess to begin with.
Oh, that’s really funny, Reverend Amy! It’s really clear we need a Haggling Czar–someone with a lot of in-your-face attitude, like say Vince Offer (the Sham-Wow, Slap-Chop guy). “Dignity” and “Elegance,” which are the attributes the bots somehow see in Thee One, will hardly cut it.
Oh, I know, Vince’s star fell a bit after he was arrested for getting in an altercation with a prostitute who “bit his tongue and would not let go,” but Hey! He’ll fit right in with the Chicago crowd! (see Wikipedia article) I think he’d be able to cut a much better deal with the Pharma-crowd than O did!
ROTFLMAO abt the Sham Wow guy - yes, he would be PERFECT for Obama’s Haggler Czar!!
And thanks, oowawa!
And be better at selling the crappy product to an unsuspecting public, too.
Exactly, Ferd. ScamNow!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm03Dgu_yXA&NR=1&feature=fvwp
LMAO oowawa.
But wait, there’s even less!
This is one of those first-prize-you-get one healthcare package and second prize-you-get-two healthcare packages.
That really sums it up Ferd!
Eleana posted this link on another thread, the funniest and most dead-on critique about O-Whole-Health I’ve seen yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IQSbJUj7u8
80 billion of What? That is the damn truth. It is 80 billion in dollars that they will not “increase” in gouging all of us for 150 million in crappy advertising (done of course by Obama pals for a very large fee). I want to negotiate with President Obama because those Chicago pols go for cheap. So the consuming public gets soaked an additional 80 billion of which 150 million is kicked back to be used for propaganda which means we pay for “savings” and the propaganda to convince the great unwashed that we are not getting screwed. The rate of return on 150 million is 53333% for the drug companies.
Why is anyone surprised? Obama lies every time he opens his mouth. And I’ll bet Pharma will be making BIG donations to Obama’s re-election campaign now.
This whole health care bill STINKS, and needs to be thrown OUT. START OVER!
What is wrong with the American people? How can they listen to this bullshitter? His body language alone gives him away.
I always knew that the MSM was slanted to the Left, and I just took that with a grain of salt. But they are now lying and deceiving the American people as much as Obama is. They’ve thrown any semblance of journalistic integrity(if there IS such a thing anymore)out the door to play slaves to their “master”.
I am worried for this country. Very worried.
We should be worried. he’s all over the place with his answers even going back to blaming Bush and the GOP
Sorry for off-topic but another plant has been revealed in Obama’s town hall meetings. I thought this was so delicious that I had to post it!
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2009/08/shill-for-messiah.html#readfurther
Not OT as far as I’m concerned. This is just amazing. When will people stop listening to him. How many lies does he have to be caught at before his obot minions learn to tune him out?
Just like what they did to Hillary and JMcCain. They point the finger to the “astroturfers” and scream foul, while all the while it is they who are actually the criminals.
RRRA,
Thanks for the excellent post, again. I’m not entirely sure how the math works. So when O and Axelrod out an undercover CIA operative in a nasty fit to get back at someone who doesn’t speak to their pre-recorded script, will that push the percentage finally up to 100%?
As far as I am concerned, he did more in the primary to even the score with the evil Cheney and has already surpassed him.
But this is very personal for me. My sister’s husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s right after retirement. He is not old enough for Medicaid yet and neither is my sister. She lost her job in a lay off. So now she is working an absolutely awful, mind-numbing and soul deadening job just so she can put him on the insurance the company provides.
She refuses to listen to a single negative point about O because she is now convinced his government option would save them. Me, I’m not convinced. And now I am even more convinced that even when he gets on Medicaid, it will not help them as much as they think in the treatment for this awful, awful condition.
There are many sad, sad stories in regard to the healthcare issue. I really wish I thought O was compassionate in his approach to this issue. All I see is a man maneuvering and scheming behind closed doors (
) simply to shore up his distorted picture of his greatness.
Diana, I am really sorry to hear abt your brother in law’s diagnosis, and abt your sister being laid off.
See, this is the biggest problem with O - people BELIEVE his lies, convince themselves that he’s going to pay their mortgage or gas costs (remember those videos from right after the election?), and then when he doesn’t come through - and you know he didn’t/won’t, they STILL have the same problems, compounded with despair that O isn’t The One they thought he was. They don’t see that it is all abt marketing. Axelrove did a test run with Deval Patrick - same slogan and everything. It worked, and now we have President Obama. Sigh.
Thanks for the compliment (and to Frikkin Lunch Box, too!).
HARP, I saw an article abt that in our paper today. WTH??? Stay tuned, I’m writing up something tomorrow that is along those lines…
Sorry for the OT but I couldn`t let this go by:
Female Marines don head scarves in Afghanistan.
http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/female-marines-don-head-scarves-in-afghanistan/
When I was in the Corps back in the ’60s, the Women Marines were affectionately referred to as BAM’s, for Broad-Assed Marines. Okay, it sounds disgusting and sexist nowadays, but as I remember it, the WM’s were honored as coequals, with much respect. If some are wearing head scarves now, under their helmets, they are doing it because they are ordered to, and not to placate the Taliban or the locals. They sure will not act like an inferior species, if they are forced into a confrontation.
My point is, these women have served for 8 years over there and never had to wear scarves until now. My guess is the order came from the White House.
Yes, right, you make a very good point, HARP. It sure makes me feel weird to think about it, and I’m sure those Women Marines ordered to wear those scarves are more than a tad uncomfortable. Come to think of it, I imagine they might have to endure some razzing from their male counterparts for that garb. An order from the White House? Very well could be from the Commander-in-Chief Himself.
Excellent point, HARP.
Well, according to the article, it’s only a specific unit of all females, whose goal is gathering intelligence from the Afghani women. They go visit them in their homes, and can get them to talk, whereas a man couldn’t.
I still have mixed feelings about it, but it’s for a specific intelligence-gathering purpose for this unit, it’s not all female marines in-country.
Great post RRR Amy; thanks for bringing this to the forefront: it is as disgusting as it gets. But why should we be surprised? OBAMA VOTED FOR Cheney’s Energy ripoff bill despite its conception: it helped his ethanol buddies back in Chicago and hence his own pockets and political ambition. And that’s all Obama cares about so he stole Cheney process and used it with Pharma: look in 2012 at his contributions. Arms and Pharma are the two most powerful industries always and ever.
Excellent point, Andy - you are absolutely right abt Cheney’s Energy Bill and Obama voting for it. He apparently also took notes from Cheney abt meeting with these execs (including coal execs) in secret.
Thanks, Andy!
And Linda! Yes, it IS shocking to see the numbers. And to realize that, in the scheme of things, $80 billion is a drop in the bucket.
To further put that in perspective, we are currently racking up $200 Billion in debt EVERY month. We are abt to bump up against our Congressionally mandated debt ceiling of $12 TRILLION dollars. Timmy is working feverishly to get it raised so we don’t default on our loans…
So, yeah - how’s that $80 Bn looking NOW??
Wow. Excellent post Amy!
To see the numbers is shocking! Absolutely shocking. How can the media so blissfully ignore all this?
It would seem to me that the ads for 150 million are a DNC campaign contribution. The bill has not been read or voted on yet, and is a political issue…for Big Pharma this is a campaign contribution…not a donation to the American people..
is this ethical, or legal? for the POTUS to ask for and receive a kick back on the back of taxpayers..isn’t this extortion?
Hey Greg, according to the leaked memo, it’s UP TO 80 billion. And according the deal, they can pay a sliding scale of rebates and it says “no more than 80 billion”.
And, of course, now that Obama has told us his panel of stake holders determing the best care for you will probably instead tell you to take a pill instead of allowing surgery…guess what? The rate…along with 40 million more human experiments, the rate will go up much more than that.
And, I would also like to say thank you, Greg, for a great article and piece of work you did to deliver it. Good stuff.
Well if Obama is going to save 2% of the anticipated price increases by Drug companies, then his cost savings and/or deficit reductions in Medicare/Medicaid are going to have to come from elsewhere. Now where would that be? Could the nasty rumors about euthanasia and care reduction or even tax increases be true? Or is Obama just going to string the drug companies along until his bill is passed and then do what he will have no choice but to do…in the national interest, of course. Obama really needs to address this issue head-on. How can anyone but Arianna Huffington, the queen of the two-faced, two timers, believe a word Obama says.
I don’t care what party you are from.
This is just WRONG.
I was angry when Gingrich tried to pull this crap under Clinton, and I’m angry that Pelosi is doing the same thing now. This is bullshit.
We have to fight back against these bastards. They represent US, not the other way around.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/08/free-speech-alert-pelosi-censored-republicans.html
Senators and Congressmen have their own healthcare plan that is first dollar or very low co-pay which they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives and are not subject to this new law if it passes.
I say, if their healthcare bill is good enough for us, it is good enough for them.
So a good point to make at any town hall meeting: We might be more willing support any health plan the president and both houses come up with if the law passed applies to them also.
Damn right, observer.
If it’s good enough for me, it’s good enough for thee.
rrra, forgot to thank you for the great post.
Also, did you see the update Greg made?
Holy SMOKES, IALT! Thanks for the update.
I couldn’t have said it better myself - we are DEFINITELY getting the shaft when it comes to Obama and this plan.
Oh, and did you hear that Obama invoked his recently deceased grandmother in his push for this plan? He really has NO shame…
I did hear him and it made me sick. During his campaign, when he needed an example of a racist, he used his granny. During this health care campaign,when he needs proof that he is compassionate toward the elderly, he digs her up and uses her again. Poor granny - I fear he’s not done using her yet.
Texas Mirth, good point. I, too, am afraid he isn’t done with her yet. That poor woman cannot even rest in peace without her grandson using her for political gain. Wow…
Here’s your latest installment of CHICAGO STYLE PAY-TO-PLAY:
Health Economy Now, the group that is heavily funded by Big Pharma, and is running all the high-dollar ads touting Obamacare, gave out some fat contracts to make those ads.
Guess which consulting groups are making a bundle designing those ads? Why, it’s Axelrod’s good buddies at the company he founded! Also GMMB, who were and are heavily involved with Organizing For America, and who recently hired the facebook kid who did such a nice job pushing Hopenchangen, at a very nice salary.
Nice to know that while Obama could not drive a good deal on drug prices for the American people, he did very well indeed at diverting some Big Pharma profits into the pockets of his political cronies.
http://patdollard.com/2009/08/86779/
Baxter International
It was Baxter International
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/02/27/8560781.html
Wonder who owns stock in Baxter International? More of just the Chicago Way?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baxter_International
Yet, when Obama announced his Drug Deal, he described it as ‘historic.’ He said, ‘today is a historic day!’
This is how he operates. He negotiates for press copy.
Amy, I for one cannot forget or forgive scumbags like Palast and Michael Moore’s koolaid drenched, heartless, vile attacks on Hillary last year. Yeah, he can dig up all the dirt on Obama’s treachery he wants, and I am sure he will, but it will never come near HIS and Michael Moore’s treachery during 2008! Live with it, jerk! YOU helped create this nightmare.
yep; once a nasty woman-hating whore, always a nasty woman-hating whore. oh well, i suspect that the likes of Moore and Palast actually enjoy taking it up the a** from their messiah.
Enmag and NONW, believe me, I thought abt using this piece for that very reason - and decided (obviously) to go with it for two reasons: 1. his research is VERY telling abt how Obama operates (is if WE needed any more proof); and 2. to demonstrate how followers of The One are starting to see the light abt him.
Yes, it is too late for this go-’round, and yes, Palast AND Moore were horrible to Hillary. My HOPE (ahem) is that Palast, at least, is doing his penance by investigating Obama’s methods.
Naturally, I would love nothing more than for him to flat out say he was wrong, and beg for forgiveness from Hillary (which she would give him because that’s how she rolls).
That being said, I completely understand from where you are coming…
Never forgive a traitor.
Rev. Amy,
Why not make a push for PUMA’s to point out Palast’s new attitude when it comes to obama? By posting his article, also include all the mean spirited things he said against Hillary during the primary to bring the point home?
amy, the same reasoning flashed thru my mind when I first read your post, but it was swiftly replaced with the memories of those heartless, vicious, testosterone-inspired attacks on Hillary. I have been involved in left politics my entire life and as a result of those experiences now believe that a person must understand and include a concept of human decency in their left identity in order to be higher than a barbarian. unfortunately, testosterone poisoned egomaniacs like palast & moore are CLUELESS when it comes to ANY notion of human dignity or human decency, unless it is some lofty so-called intellectual concept that they don’t have to live in the here and now. they are pure SCUM and scum predictably has no concept of penance, only more, more, more testosterone thrills.
“What did that cost us? The New England Journal of Medicine notes that 13 European nations successfully regulate the price of drugs, reducing the average cost of name-brand prescription medicines by 35% to 55%. Obama gave that up for his 2%.”
“His 2%?” Let’s take this a little further. If the potential savings ran to 55% and Obama settled for 2% that leaves a whopping chunk of cash in place for Big Pharma. How much of that do you suppose will wind up in Obama’s campaign coffers?
The “death panels” are real, folks. They’re already in place at the VA. When surgeons refuse to repair an aneurysm that meets all the surgical criteria and recommend instead that the 65-year-old patient be “re-refer(red) when aneurysm is larger” the handwriting is on the wall. If you are sixty-five, your primary obligation if you get sick is to shut up and die.
Is it any wonder people are screaming?
Lies, lies and more lies
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/lies_lies_and_more_lies.html
Even NYT David Brooks on PBS said Obama was telling some whoopers.
[...] even investigative journalist Greg Palast, whose article I reported on the other day regarding the whopping 2% the Big Pharma MIGHT give up, as TYT reported above, threw all of his training away for Obama. Glad he’s regained some of [...]
[...] Signing off on a secret deal with drug makers. [...]