Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma

www.huffingtonpost.com

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.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Representatives from both the White House and PhRMA, shown the outline, adamantly denied that it reflected reality. PhRMA senior vice president Ken Johnson said that the outline "is simply not accurate." "This memo isn't accurate and does not reflect the agreement with the drug companies," said White House spokesman Reid Cherlin.

Stories in the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times last week indicated that the administration was confirming that such a deal had been made.

Critics on Capitol Hill and online responded with outrage at the reports that Obama had gone behind their backs and sold the reform movement short. Furthermore, the deal seemed to be a betrayal of several promises made by then-Sen. Obama during the presidential campaign, among them that he would use the power of government to drive down the costs of drugs to Medicare and that negotiations would be conducted in the open.

www.huffingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Are we surprised that they lied? Not in the least bit.

They keep digging themselves a deeper hole.

All I can add is that the time is coming when "the people" will put their collective boot up TPTB's backside.

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman


Bah, you beat me to the article for a few minutes... I shouldn't have spent so long writting my comments on the article.

The TPTB don't really know how to hide that well don't they? I'm tired of their lies. Okay, they're against the health care bill just like they were against the federal reserve bill. This is sickening. When will this deceit end?

Before it is deleted, here are my comments.

So, the Americans who are pro healthcare reform thought that the Obama administration is trying to look out for them and it is not making deals with big pharma?

Here is an interesting part of the article. BTW, yes if there is a good article from a leftist newspapers such as the Huff i will post it.

PhRMA's Johnson cast doubts on the provenance of the outline. "The memo, as described, is simply not accurate," he said in a statement. "Anyone could have written it. Unless it comes from our board of directors, it's not worth the paper it's written on. Clearly, someone is trying to short circuit our efforts to try and make health care reform a reality this year. That's not going to happen. Too much is at stake for both patients and the U.S. economy. Our new ads supporting health care reform are starting this week, and we are redoubling our efforts to drive awareness of why this issue is so important to America's future."

Johnson added that "no outside lobbyists -- not a single one -- were ever involved in our discussions with the Senate Finance Committee or the White House so someone is blowing smoke."

But the lobbyist who was given the outline defended its authenticity. And although the White House now says that drug price negotiations and reimportation were not actually discussed in the talks with PhRMA, the lobbyist said: "Well, that's bull -- that's baloney. That was part of the deal, for them not to push that."

The new uncertainty surrounding the deal comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has repeatedly said that her chamber is not bound by any agreement it is not a party to. On July 8th, the day after the Journal reported some elements of the deal, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said in a public speech that his committee would not be tied down by the agreement.

So Democrats in power are trying to claim that this deal was never done, but a lobbyist who was part of the deal says the memo is true, and this is part of what was agreed on.

So, healthcare reform for the "betterment of us, the American people"?


[edit on 14-8-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

The only surprise in this is that the Huffington post is running with this story.

Simply amazing. Life is full of interesting surprises.

When a full out blind supporting news site that has continually openly supported the president posts a damning story like this it more than exposes the fractures within the liberal mass.

If they lose the support of their own, they have lost it all period.

Ugh!

I really want to contribute to this thread, but I'm too nauseous .....


All I can say is we need to always remember - especially where media is concerned -

"Nothing in politics happens that isn't planned, staged, and produced."

You can't trust either side of this argument... and somehow, the actual people who pay the price and suffer the sacrifices always come up losing.

Is this really a surprise to anyone? Obama's non use of lobbyists in his white house, I mean he said that he wouldn't use any and yet people claim that he has them in his whitehouse, obviously Obama can't lie so they can't be lobbyists. Is it surprising that some media would slander our great leader and lie about his further use of lobbyists and backroom deals with the big money guys? Obama is pure as the driven snow and only cares about us, so obviously someone is trying to slander him and make it so our care isn't taken care of by trying to derail an obviously excellent health care reform effort so we can all have our right to healthcare equally. /sarcasm

How is it that the Huffington Post(ObamaPaper) is the one reporting this?
hmmm..... Interesting!

How is it that the Huffington Post(ObamaPaper) is the one reporting this?
hmmm..... Interesting!

reply to post by gaborn415


What bothers me most about this is the fact that either way the Insurance industry wins. If they can create the perception that "Big Pharma" is in on a deal they make it less likely the Health Care bill will pass ... (not that I want it to) and they get to keep the status quo..., in which we all know they continue to benefit from the way things are now. Also, if it fails, "Big Pharma" wins, because we still have to swallow the bitter pill of their outrageous pricing structure (pun intended).

If it passes we have to face endless streams of social engineering garbage based on ideologies that are at best, shared only by a partisan few.

It's a miracle of political engineering.... heads we lose, tails we lose.

I am not at all surprised that this young career politician and all of his 'influential' friends get what they want, regardless of any silly little 'words' that he said or was told to say.

Ain't politics fun?

What it has to do with the improvement of the human condition is another story entirely. "Health Care" is probably the most clever 'branding' I have ever seen for an industry that derives profit from human suffering... except maybe,' Security Consulting'...

reply to post by Maxmars


Not true. If they went after the real problems of healthcare such as tort reform and insurance companies have the ability to sell their insurance nationwide instead of just adapting to a particular state laws; prices would drop and you would have less decline of procedures.

Originally posted by Walkswithfish
The only surprise in this is that the Huffington post is running with this story.

That's the truth! Huffington Post?
Anyways .. good for them! If they keep it up they just might redeem themselves.

Internal Medicine

Perhaps a little more transparency from the White House would clear this up.

reply to post by Maxmars

What bothers me most about this is the fact that either way the Insurance industry wins. If they can create the perception that "Big Pharma" is in on a deal they make it less likely the Health Care bill will pass ... (not that I want it to) and they get to keep the status quo..., in which we all know they continue to benefit from the way things are now. Also, if it fails, "Big Pharma" wins, because we still have to swallow the bitter pill of their outrageous pricing structure (pun intended).

You can never trust insurance agents, real estate agents or lawyers... or so they say.
And I agree.

reply to post by Maxmars


Security Counciling and 'military intelligence.'

But yeah, they have their bases covered and you had better bet they have waged bets 20 ways based on this one outcome.


PS - As a side note, everyone should listen to the song "Hang Me Up to Dry"... Describes my mood at this point and is a great song. The Cold War Kids

[edit on 14-8-2009 by JayinAR]

Originally posted by JayinAR
You can never trust insurance agents, real estate agents or lawyers... or so they say.
And I agree.

You forgot to add politicians. Nothing worse than a politician, except maybe a child molester.

Yep, real transparent, Obama. Keep up the good work.

reply to post by epete22


Oh, prices will drop alright...immediately.
They have written it that way for a reason. Problem is, they are banking on the sudden inflow of cash to secure a line of credit with China.

Once that credit runs dry and they have undercut the private sector those prices will creep up like gasoline in preparation of Memorial Day. Slowly.

Like bringing frogs to boil in a pot. And you will never even notice that you don't have the money to go to the movies any longer on the weekends. You will live paycheck to paycheck. Like a lot of other folks already do.

It is a non-tax, tax. And it is illegal...

For a reason.

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman


Nice find.

Another broken promise it seems. When will ALL people realize that it's just a different face playing the same game?

Looks like we can add this one to the list here as TRUTH.

www.abovetopsecret.com...