Carper, Coons Love Them Some Pharma Money
Brian pointed out in the comments that both Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons voted against the Klobuchar/Sanders Amendment.
Democrats sought to drive a wedge between Senate Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump by pushing multiple amendments to curb the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs. Trump slammed the pharmaceutical industry as “getting away with murder” at his Wednesday press conference and promised the federal government would soon start negotiating with the industry for better prices. An amendment from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to allow the importation of drugs from Canada failed 46-52, but 12 Republicans voted for it.
Some other Democratic senators that voted against this amendment were Booker, Casey, and Warner. I’m interested in why Senator Cory Booker also opted for politics as usual. I expect this pragmatic Democrat shit from Carper and Coons, after all, they are card-carrying members of Clinton’s Democratic Party — so deep in Big Pharma pockets, the drug giant’s nutsack keeps them warm at night. And here I naively thought Booker was from the line of Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey. We all have our disappointments.
Tags: Big Pharma, Chris Coons, Tom Carper
It’s b/c New Jersey is every bit as lousy with big pharma companies as Delaware is.
Indefensible vote for Booker.
” I naively thought Booker was from the line of Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey. We all have our disappointments.”
Not a chance. Recall Booker was the guy who gave Mitt Romney some cover with hedge funds and big donations back in 2012 Presidential campaign..
Indefensible? Here’s his defense:
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/even-ted-cruz-voted-to-import-cheaper-drugs-from-canada-but-these-13-dems-voted-against-it/
Because, you know, in Canada they’re dropping dead all over the place from those unsafe drugs they prescribe in what Cory Booker (and Carper and Coons) apparently think is a Third World country.
Thanks anonymous. Nice statements written by Big Pharma.
So much for any hope of Booker coming along and bridging the Clinton-Sanders gap to unite the party for 2020. Sellout.
Carper and Coons hold their seats only at the pleasure of Delaware’s largest corporations. Why do you think they always draw tomato-can opponents? If they cross pharma or banks, we will see Republicans in their seats before long. I guess it’s the same for Booker.
Apparently, Booker is a pragmatic “Democrat”.
Booker has his fans in some Democratic circles.
He always has been “pragmatic.” His ties to Wall Street are stronger than anybody but Christie’s.
And the Wall Street swizzle-dicks who cried when Obama said mean things about them in lieu of investigating and prosecuting them are exactly as loyal as any Democrat should always expect financial sector shitwipes to be. Remember, without somebody’s wealth to skim the cream off of, they have no jobs.
Just one more reason why the D’s should have nominated Bernie instead of Hillary Clinton:
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/12/sanders-slams-democrats-who-voted-pharmaceutical-industry/96506340/
This is what a Democrat should be saying:
“The Democratic Party has got to make it very clear that they are prepared to stand up to powerful special interests like the pharmaceutical industry and like Wall Street, and they’re not going to win elections and they’re not going to be doing the right thing for the American people unless they have the guts to do that,” said Sanders, the leader of outreach efforts for Senate Democrats. “That 13 Democrats did not is disappointing. I absolutely hope that in the coming weeks and months you’re going to see many of them develop the courage to stand up to Pharma.”
We should nationalize the drug companies and reinvest those exorbitant profits and sky-high salaries into making lifesaving drugs affordable to everyone.
Have we learned nothing? These kinds of votes from Democrats undercut the party’s ability to speak for the 99%, and set Democrats up for even more electoral defeats.
We need to kick the corporatists out of the big tent.
what a piece of shit
On reading about Carper’s and Coons’ votes on this resolution, a friend of mine posted:
AZ charges me $17,000.00 per month for 30 pills but I have 2 insurance coverages that I pay for each month- primary and secondary and my co-pay is $3,252/mo for the pills.
The ones in power in this country don’t give a rat’s ass about regular folks.
For the first time in my life, I contacted both Coons and Carper. My one little D vote won’t make a dent, but it’s a start. NO TO SELLOUTS!
And we wonder why we lost the election.
Rodney, that’s the way to go. Everybody take note, then pick up your phones.
As much as it pisses me off to admit, there is pretty strong evidence that Canadian drug protections in the form of clinical trials are less stringent than ours, as well as some European sources of drugs imported to Canada. So to condemn our reps for being overly cautious on consumer protection may be hasty. Further, some of our fellow Dems are hot after import/trade protectionism……it pisses me off that our Senators might believe they are being responsible for our economic health by protecting Big Pharma, but it actually might make sense from that point of view.
If they’re substandard, why do American corporations allow them to sell those drugs under their American patents?
It’s a bullshit number they’ve been running for years. Don’t be so gullible. You won’t find a single case of finding brand-name drugs from Canada leading to deaths.
I think it is a legitimate concern for us seeking consumer protections from our government to be concerned about the quality and efficacy of drugs bought from Canadian pharmacies on line, some of which might be counterfeit, fake or not researched through trials…..which ones? which shipment? We’ll never know. Much like the fake and sometimes dangerous stuff produced and bought here in the form of our unregulated supplements and “natural” OTC remedies, some found be be mostly ground up wood pulp. If there were regs. and checks in place for imported drugs, somehow, that would be great. In the meantime, the only real solution for us are price controls and bidding in the case of competitive formulations.
What are you talking about? Generics? Pharmaceutical companies selling patented drugs control their manufacture, even in Canada and Europe. The cases you’re talking about are fraud perpetrated on gullible internet buyers.
The US government isn’t you buying blind over the internet, for crying out loud.
You sound like an anti-vaxxer.
Canadian imports are not the long-term solution, but they would be a much-needed shot across the bow to drug companies and their elected water-carriers, and hopefully a spur to more comprehensive drug price legislation.
Uh, Stan? You DO realize that Europeans are paying about 1/4 of what Americans are paying for drugs manufactured by Astra Zeneca–in AMERICA.
Why? Because Carper’s version of a ‘better’ Obamacare prohibits the government from using their negotiating power to negotiate lower prices. Why? Because the drug companies have PAID Carper and his, wait for it, ILK to support the drug companies instead of the consumers.
Senators are cheap so drugs are expensive.
Bernie Sanders on the issue:
Some of them made excuses that importing such drugs was not safe for Americans. The problem is, that’s an echoing of the same argument Big Pharma makes. Bernie Sanders’ according to USA Today, said he agrees the medicine should be safe, but he believes that can easily be accomplished.
“If we can import vegetables and fish and poultry and beef from all corners of the Earth, please don’t tell me that we cannot bring in, from Canada and other major countries, name brand prescription drugs of some of the largest corporations in the world,” he said. “That’s a laughable statement.”
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/13-Sellout-Democratic-Sena-by-Rob-Kall-Big-Pharma_Corporations-Pharmaceuticals_Drugs-Over-The-Counter_Sellout-Democratic-Shills-170113-888.html
El Som, the reason Europeans and others are paying so much less is they have the good sense to impose price controls, which I favor at least with some categories of drugs. Some low drug pricing to healthcare providers outside the U.S.A. is that Pharma views such business as incremental to their bottom line, so they are willing to cut…..or bid low as long as they are unimpeded from pricing on a laissez fare basis here in the U.S.A. Not defending this practice, just observing capitalism at work. Not defending selling out to corporate interests, which likely plays into their votes. These corporatists view part of their responsibility is to support business interests alongside citizen interests. I do not view this concept as altogether unreasonable in theory; I do think that when citizen’s interests are significantly harmed, restraints on corporate activity must be put in play or citizens in some way protected. Re: Bernie, it is not OK that we are not being protected when we buy uninspected food or rx supplements and herbal remedies, let alone imported produce or fish. ACA is a partial solution with member premium subsidies.
Americans are allergic to “price controls.” But when you call it “buying from the lowest-cost source” they’re all over it. Just ask any Walmart shopper.
If we can import cheap labor from overseas then we can damn well import cheap drugs.
Stan, we know all that. The point is that they aren’t selling fake pharmaceuticals in Europe and Canada.
The government would never allow importation of drugs from Canada anyway. It’s a show vote to serve notice to Big Pharma, which has nothing to fear from the people who brought us Part D (which forbids the practice you advocate).
Anonymous, aux contraire regarding fake RX. Check out the stories on this, particularly Asian counterfeits in Europe and elsewhere. Some have been found from pharmacies on line claiming Canadian locations which turn out not to be true. Also, Homeopathic medicines, hugely popular in Europe, are considered by many in the RX field to be at the very least questionable medically….much like our own supplement industry which seems to have Provo, Utah as its HQ ! I am not a defender of Big Pharma which has many questionable practices and destructive influence, including rigged trials and unethical marketing. I am merely asking for a more reasonable dialogue on this issue from a consumer protection POV.
@Stan: There certainly is a danger for individual consumers buying over the internet. That’s not the issue. Making importation legal isn’t about letting Aunt Petunia buy laetrile from Mexico.
If importing pharmaceuticals were legal, all buyers would avail themselves of the cheaper rates in Canada and Europe. That includes all the legitimate participants in the health-care market. Those health-care systems would not open themselves to massive lawsuits by providing consumers with counterfeit drugs.
If everybody could get drugs from Canada, nobody would have to.
Stan… Your objections are valid for those sketchy direct-to-consumer Internet sales. That is not what the Klobuchar amendment was about. the US government would not be buying homeopathic remedies and would be buying from legit distributors, not fly-by-night pharmacies.
The bill said buying would be done by u.s. pharmacies, wholesalers and individuals. That would include aunt petunia. Let me wrap my mind around this….. McKesson u.s., wholesaler already handling Pfizer’s line at high u.s.prices buys Pfizer’s formulary from Canadian distributor at lower Canadian prices. Pfizer fires McKesson as a result and goes with competing distributor…..Or starts selling direct to pharmacies or hospitals……..Market chaos causing supply line problems and likely increased costs…..This whole scenario makes no sense.
@ Stanley.
McKesson, Cardinal Health and the other major wholesalers are a signature feature of the grotesque rent seeking in the healthcare industry that is continuously siphoning off vital resources from other sectors of the economy and directly driving inequality.
See Angus Deaton and four other Nobel prize winners discuss here: https://www.aeaweb.org/webcasts/2017/nobels.php
These wholesalers are also, at least partially, responsible for the deaths of more than 200,000 opiate users due to their rent-seeking, market cornering, negligence and greed. They deserve zero seats at the the table when considering “reasonable reforms”
http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-health/20161217/drug-firms-poured-780m-painkillers-into-wv-amid-rise-of-overdoses
Brian, unless we create a government run distribution system of drugs from manufacturer to consumer, where the price is negotiated such as my own VA source for meds, seems to me price controls are the only option…maybe cosmetically called something else ! I have had direct personal experience in converting product distribution from us, the producer to wholesalers like McKesson to a direct system to hospitals, driving the distribution costs up about 30%. Costly and highly inefficient. So I argue with some experience in this area. It is a complex supply chain; some of it shelf stable, some of it refrigerated, which requires differing modes of storage and transfer. This oversimplified bill, well intended and my preference, simply was not thought through in its wide ranging complexities and complications. Yet some really smart fellow progressives are all over our Dems voting to “deny” us Canadian drugs. Sorry, sometimes we progressives do not have a good handle on nuance…..what seems right and just is not always simple or easy. Frankly, that is why sometimes our Reps. need to talk to lobbyists who might have a better handle on these industry-specific complexities. Same might be true of the theoreticians speaking at such length in the video you posted above.
No. The nuance, aka: “it’s complicated” AKA technocratic, credentialialed elite neoliberalism, AKA let’s rely on specialist segments of the market to inform us what’s best regarding this nuance… is what keeps producing the inequality -> alienation -> despair -> death feedback loop. The minimal, negligible and negligent incrementalism when dealing with the “nuance” is what keeps producing death. Period. Anyone who suggests this is the preferred politics of a far future that protects our children’s and grandchildren’s interests is a part of the problem. Our politics must evolve so we can accurately, vigorously, and successfully managed the direction and outcome of these question: “who and what is attacking our neighborhoods, our communities, and their ability to control their own destinies”?
@stan: Your experience is not the same thing as knowing what you’re talking about.
I’m sorry about your Aunt Petunia, but I’m not willing to pay four times what Europe and Canada do for drugs just because she’s a fool.
So I guess when informed experience on an issue is not present, Brian and anonymous, you have to resort to labels “neoliberalism” or insults “not knowing what you’re talking about” must be activated. Gentlepersons, pathetic.
@Stan I don’t question your expertise, experience, or desire for real change and impact. I could elaborate on my own bona fides but that’s not the point. I imagine where we differ most, and it may not be that much of a difference, may be in our definitions of pragmatism, and the boundaries by which we imagine moving the needle. Either way, I’m willing to work with, organize with, stand side-by-side with anyone committed to a better future. I’m also committed to running through anyone who stands in opposition to that future.
I wish you all the best.
Well, Stan, I’ve already explained why your fears are ridiculous, but you don’t seem to understand it, so why piss up a rope?
Your “concern” happens to be the exact same concern the pharmaceutical companies claim. How’s it feel to be played, gentleperson?