March Of The Corporate Whores

Would You Vote For Someone Owned By Big PhRMA And Wants To Keep Drug Prices High?

I have to go down to Mexico soon because I'm running out of the neuropathy medicine that I usually get in Thailand. The stuff-- 2 pills a day, everyday-- costs around $1,000 a week (with crappy Republican drug insurance). I only take one pill every other day so I don't run out. Buying it in Mexico-- which entails smuggling it back to the U.S.-- saves about $900 a week. Progressives have been working on that kind of Big PhRMA rip off... but once again, corrupt, corporate conservatives-- basically the New Dems and Blue Dogs who make up the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- are trying to sabotage reform legislation.

Let get the names out of the way first of all-- the saboteurs:

First and foremost we have the Chuck Schumer pick for the Democratic nomination to take on Marco Rubio next year in the Florida Senate race, Blue Dog chair, Stephanie Murphy, the next Kyrsten Sinema? And then there's this motley crew of anti-worker rat-fuckers:

• Scott Peters (New Dem Policy Vice Chair-CA)

• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)

• Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA)

• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)

• Frank Mrvan (IN)

• Marilyn Strickland (New Dem-WA)

• Tony Cárdenas (New Dem-CA)

• Jake Auchincloss (MA)

• Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY)

The 10 assholes sent Pelosi a letter opposing the Democrats' plans to lower the cost of prescription drugs, insisting that instead of getting anything done for consumers, it be "bipartisan," meaning giving the drug companies and their Republican allies a veto. The 10 corrupt conservative Democrats whined to Pelosi-- using bullshit NRCC talking points-- that the Democrats plan won't "preserve our invaluable innovation ecosystem."

Peters and Auchincloss, two rapidly anti-progressive corporate Dems, wrote that "We must garner bipartisan, bicameral support, with buy-in from a majority of Americans and stakeholders in the public and private sectors. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we all, truly, must be in this together." That's a prescription for no change... ever, exactly what Big PhRMA's $770,415 in bribes to Peters was meant for.

The payoffs from Big PhRMA/Insurance to the corrupt Democrats (not counting the 3 freshmen who haven't had time to get their pay-for-play bribery schemes up and running yet) who want you to pay more for your prescriptions:

• Stephanie Murphy- $185,064/$377,414

• Scott Peters- $770,415/$189,889

• Kurt Schrader- $590,330/$372,436

• Lou Correa- $171,123/$153,724

• Josh Gottheimer- $223,803/$703,841

• Tony Cárdenas- $461,879/$171,111

• Kathleen Rice- $78,109/$257,030

The bill they're opposing, H.R. 3 would allow the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices and cap prices based on prices paid in other countries, received only 2 Republican votes when it passed the House in 2019, and is fiercely opposed by Big PhRMA.

Jason Call is running for Congress in northwest Washington. He's been active in the state party and told me this morning that "Those of us local to WA-10 knew that Marilyn Strickland was going to be bad (I grew up near, and went to high school in Tacoma, where Strickland was a pro-Chamber of Commerce mayor) but this bad, already? And yet, this is entirely on brand for the Democratic Party, which consistently plays good cop bad cop with itself on critical issues that would have a meaningful impact on the working class. We saw the same a few years ago when a dozen Senate Dems blocked a proposal to import cheaper drugs from Canada-- my own two Washington Senators among them, with Patty Murray taking in a million from pharma over her career. The mask is off with these folks, and for those paying attention it was never really on. The Democratic Party appears to just not want to do the necessary work for the people that needs to be done. With such a potentially short window of opportunity to pass legislation, corporate holdouts must be targeted for removal. Looking at the signees to this letter on bipartisanship, I see Kurt Schrader who is being challenged by progressive Mark Gamba, and Tony Cardeñas who cynically said he supported Medicare For All recently (obviously not the case) being challenged again by progressive Angelica Dueñas. Hopefully we can find a challenge to every one of these corporate sellouts. I’m looking for someone to take on newly elected Strickland in my hometown. As for bipartisanship, George Carlin said, 'when you hear the word bipartisan you can rest assured that some greater than usual deception is taking place.'"