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The U.S. based news site, CommonDreams.org, a non-profit that bills itself as serving the Progressive community, posted an article on 17 September about its campaign in its battle with Big Pharma to lower their drug prices.
They noted that on 15 September, three Democrat members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee voted against giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices. One of those, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) who got over $84,000 in campaign contributions from pharmaceutical and health corporations. The other two, Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR), have collectively received $1.7 million from the Drug Lords.
Trends Journal reported, in “TAX DOLLARS BOOST DRUG DEALER PROFITS” (2 Feb 2021), that from 1999-2018, for example, Big Pharma “spent $4.7 billion, an average of $233 million per year, on lobbying (buying out) the U.S. federal government; $414 million on contributions to presidential and congressional electoral candidates, national party committees, and outside spending groups; and $877 million on contributions to state candidates and committees. Contributions were targeted at senior legislators in Congress involved in drafting health care laws and state committees that opposed or supported key referenda on drug pricing and regulation.”
In an October 2020 campaign ad, Rice pandered to her constituents by promising to “always put the health and safety of Long Island first.” But then she voted against the interests of the 90 percent of her constituents who favor Medicaid having that negotiating power. That vote inspired CommonDreams to pay for a billboard in Rice’s district informing her constituents of her “betrayal.”
And Big Pharma is fighting back with its own multi-million dollar TV ads and increasing its lobbying efforts by 19 percent over last year, to the tune of over $6 million.
CommonDreams vows to win, and believes it will by virtue of having the American people plus “the vast majority of the Democratic caucus and President Biden” on its side, aided by $4 million in advertising just purchased by AARP.
The article concludes, “That is why carrying water for Pharma is not only a moral failure, it is also a political failure. Any politician who puts Pharma profits before the needs of their constituents will lose their jobs. And they will deserve it. Pharma shills simply aren’t fit to represent the people of their districts.”
TRENDPOST: The belief of Americans that they have a “representative” form of government is true. The political whores they elect represent those who enrich them, as the Drug Lords do, with “campaign contributions.
According to STAT:
Seventy-two senators and 302 members of the House of Representatives cashed a check from the pharmaceutical industry ahead of the 2020 election—representing more than two-thirds of Congress, according to a new STAT analysis of records for the full election cycle.
Pfizer’s political action committee alone contributed to 228 lawmakers. Amgen’s PAC donated to 218, meaning that each company helped to fund the campaigns of nearly half the lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Overall, the sector donated $14 million.
While CommonDreams labels itself “progressive,” believing that President Biden is on the side of the American people, according to Drug Discovery and Development, some three weeks before the 2020 U.S. presidential race, “donors with links to drug companies have donated $2.5 million to the Biden campaign—significantly more than the $647,000 given to Trump’s reelection campaign.”