Despite the on-going dog and pony show going on with the various speeches that President Obama has been giving recently supporting the public option, there's just something about this 'too little too late' half hearted effort on his part that doesn't ring true for me.
Perhaps it began when I realized early on that without a doubt, President Obama knew he was in for the fight of his life in terms of any 'real' health care reform, and instead of producing a highly professional campaign style blitz, with a specific plan of action on the part of his public relations officers, what came instead was a confused and muddled consistently - inconsistent message on exactly what the President 'stood' for on health care reform.
It's as if Obama showed up for the 'party' but everyone had already gone home and the place was trashed by the time he walked in the door. I refuse to believe he didn't understand what and who he was up against. No, this was 'let's make a deal' from the get go.
President Obama refused over and over to draw a line in the sand for the public option, and that told me more about what he was not saying than what he was simply 'dancing around' as did his 'secret' deal with Big Pharma behind closed doors. Now that deal with Big Pharma has a little teeny weenie tiny problem - Congressman Henry Waxman.
As Matt Taibbi points out on his recent post:
So Obama gets elected and swoops into Washington with a big mandate and now the question for him becomes, how do I make all of my various sponsors happy? If you look at the proposals carefully you can see that the whole policy debate is shaped by this dynamic. What is consistently present throughout the policies favored by the White House is an effort to use tax money to subsidize the existing employer-based private system instead of doing the logical thing and taking the bite — for a bite had to be taken out of someone — out of the pharma and insurance industries.
As an added bonus for all of us, the "reform" will include individual mandates designed to significantly increase the insurance and pharma industry’s customer base. So in the end, what we’re looking at is a pair of handouts to corporate donors: tax subsidies to ease the cost of insurance for employers, and mandates to push more business to the health care industry.
As some of you may recall the 'big secret deal' behind closed doors with Obama and Rahm, was leaked saying that the White House A-Ok'd a plan involving the $150 million. That $150 million dollars is now what will be used in the upcoming months to blitz the television/radio air ways with commercials to buy what is essentially the Obama/Baucus plan hook, line and sinker. The deal included a promise from the White House to drop two important reforms: one, to allow the government to negotiate bulk rates for drugs in Medicare, and the other to permit the importation of cheap drugs from Canada.
Only there's a bit of a sticky wicket now in the mix because of Congressman Waxman. Oh nozzzes!!!!....did the cart get out before the horse?
The only problem with this plan, from the White House’s side, was that not all of the president’s fellow Democrats played along. Specifically, Energy and Commerce chair Henry Waxman put a provision in his health care bill that allowed the government to negotiate lower rates. If Waxman’s language were to be allowed to survive, it would queer the White House’s deal. Now we’re also seeing pressure from a group of freshmen and Blue Dogs, who have composed a letter to a quartet of House Committee chairs requesting that the Waxman language be removed from the health care bill and replaced with the PhRMA language, which happens to be the language the White House is pushing and which will appear in the Baucus bill in the Senate. The pro-PhRMA language retains the preposterous government subsidy to the pharmaceutical industry in the form of laws banning Medicare from negotiating market rates. It is completely useless and of no possible social benefit to anyone except pharmaceutical companies, but this group still managed to get 60 people to sign this letter.
What does this letter say? Does it argue that the PhRMA language is better for America than the Waxman language? Does it say it will cost taxpayers less and provide cheaper drugs to more people? Hilariously, no. What it says is that this PhRMA language, while worse than the Waxman language, is not quite so bad as you think (it doesn’t save as much as the Waxman language, but it still has a 50 percent price reduction, which isn’t terrible!). Moreover, the letter says, substituting this language will help the bill get passed! Here’s the actual language, addressed primarily to Waxman:
"Your efforts to remove this onerous burden on Medicare beneficiaries... are to be greatly commended. However the commitment by President Obama and the AARP to support legislation that would provide a 50 percent reduction is a dramatic step forward in helping fill the dough nut hole. Equally important, it moves us toward our goal of health care legislation."
http://trueslant.com/...
That letter to Waxman reads to me like this between the lines:
So, gee Congressman Waxman, why don't you just drop any 'integrity' you have in terms of any 'real' reform and stop all those 'silly' provisions which would allow the government to negotiate lower rates. Just come on over here Henry, and join the rest of us in the 'Big Pay Off to Big Pharma and Private Health Insurance Companies' so we'll all get tons and tons of money for our next big 'Election Cycle' coffers.
It looks like that 'deal' that Obama/Rahm made behind closed doors has them by the balls now, and if Henry Waxman doesn't play ball, it sure could end up being a 'turd in the punch bowl' of what appears to be turning out as the biggest payoff to the big Pharma and Private Insurance Companies 'Fake Health Reform' Bill. Even Senator Rockefeller thinks the Baucus plan sucks the big one, but Baucus is laughing all the way to the bank with his 3 million dollar bribe money. It is pathetic how easily our so-called leaders are bought off while millions of Americans suffer.
I always love that scene in Mr. Smith goes to Washington, where Jimmy Stewart is just so exhausted. He talks about 'Lost Causes' and he just keeps fighting no matter what. Call me a dreamer, but I really want so badly to still believe that there is one good man left in the halls of Congress.
Perhaps Henry Waxman will stand up tall and be that man. I refuse to believe that we have come this far just to let this health care reform turn into another 'Lost Cause'.
Call Congressman Waxman today and tell him to stick to his guns. Tell him that we, the people of this nation, did not make a deal with Big Phrama for a cheesy $150 million dollars for television ads to sell a reform package that will include no Public Option, and No Real Reform.
Who would of thought that we would be sold out for such a shitty deal? $150 million is 'chicken shit' to Big Pharma. Here's some information for you:
NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue.
US Pharmaceutical Industry Report, 2008-2009
http://www.reportlinker.com/...
The United States has the largest pharmaceutical industry in the world. In 2007,its pharmaceutical revenue totaled at US$ 315 billion.
Call Henry, if for no other reason, to voice your outrage that we the people would be sold down the river for a measly $150 million, when these blood sucker drug companies are charging the American people twice as much as any other country in the world. Today there are people dying all over this country, because they simply cannot afford to pay for their drugs. It is a disgrace, a complete and utter disgrace that such a deal would be made with the drug companies when so many are dying from because our Congress does not have the guts to stand up for real reform, and care more about the Corporate profits for their next 'election cycle' instead of simply doing the right thing: the humane thing. Each dollar that they take from these companies has blood on it, and this could have been a very simple proposition for the American people: Medicare for all, period. Instead it has been turned into 'let's make a deal with the devil' to payoff the Corporate Whores in Congress. As the saying goes: If you're not outraged, then you must be on life-support.
'Jeeze, Rahm - you couldn't get anymore than $150 million out of a $315 BILLION dollar industry? Sucky deal Rahm, time to go back to 'Negotiation 101' and learn how to play 'poker' with the big guys.'
Congressman Waxman's contact information:
WASHINGTON, D.C. OFFICE
2204 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Telephone
(202) 225-3976 Fax (202) 225-4099
LOS ANGELES OFFICE
8436 West Third Street, Ste 600 Los Angeles, CA 90048
Telephone 1 (310) 652-3095 Telephone 2 (818) 878-7400
Telephone 3 (323) 651-1040 Fax (323) 655-0502
Thanks for your thoughts.....