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paulk

(11,586 posts)
Fri Jun 8, 2012, 03:46 PM Jun 2012

Lobby E-Mails Show Depth of Obama Ties to Drug Industry

WASHINGTON — After weeks of quiet talks, drug industry lobbyists were growing nervous. If they were to cut a deal with the White House on overhauling health care, they needed to be sure President Obama would stop a proposal by his liberal allies intended to bring down medicine prices.

On June 3, 2009, one of the lobbyists e-mailed Nancy-Ann DeParle, the president’s top health care adviser. Ms. DeParle sent a message back reassuring the lobbyist. Although Mr. Obama was overseas, she wrote, she and other top officials had “made decision, based on how constructive you guys have been, to oppose importation on the bill.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/09/us/politics/e-mails-reveal-extent-of-obamas-deal-with-industry-on-health-care.html

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As a liberal Democrat it looks like my choice this November is between bad and worse.

I have never in my life been less enthused about an election.

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Lobby E-Mails Show Depth of Obama Ties to Drug Industry (Original Post) paulk Jun 2012 OP
Congratulations! AtomicKitten Jun 2012 #1
Well, to be fair, he said they were democrats. EOTE Jun 2012 #2
There's been a lot of those (conversions). Great Find! Tarheel_Dem Jun 2012 #3
people change, AK paulk Jun 2012 #4
Glad you did. We need more Progressive Democrats and the more people wake up to the fact sabrina 1 Jun 2012 #5
Post removed Post removed Jun 2012 #6
So ProSense Jun 2012 #7
Or just depressing Democratic voters again. Works so well. freshwest Jun 2012 #8

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
5. Glad you did. We need more Progressive Democrats and the more people wake up to the fact
Fri Jun 8, 2012, 04:55 PM
Jun 2012

that many calling them Democrats are Dinos, the better chance we have of electing Democrats who support the Working Class rather than Wall Street. They have the other party if that's who they want to support.

Good for you for being willing to change.

Response to AtomicKitten (Reply #1)

ProSense

(116,464 posts)
7. So
Fri Jun 8, 2012, 05:02 PM
Jun 2012

"As a liberal Democrat it looks like my choice this November is between bad and worse."

...you're now a "liberal Democrat" basing your opinion of Obama (bad?) vs. Romney (worse) on a bullshit article (which is based on info from Republicans)?


The e-mail exchange that day three years ago was among a cache of messages obtained from the industry and released in recent weeks by House Republicans — including a new batch put out on Friday morning detailing the industry’s advertising campaign in favor of Mr. Obama’s proposal. The broad contours of the president’s dealings with the drug industry were known in 2009 but the newly public e-mails open a window into the compromises underlying a health care overhaul now awaiting the judgment of the Supreme Court.

<...>

Republicans see the deal as hypocritical. “He said it was going to be the most open and honest and transparent administration ever and lobbyists won’t be drafting the bills,” said Representative Michael C. Burgess of Texas, one of the Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that is examining the deal. “Then when it came time, the door closed, the lobbyists came in and the bills were written.”

Some of the liberals bothered by the deal-making in 2009 now find the Republican criticism hard to take given the party’s long-standing ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

“Republicans trumpeting these e-mails is like a fox complaining someone else raided the chicken coop,” said Robert Reich, the former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton. “Sad to say, it’s called politics in an era when big corporations have an effective veto over major legislation affecting them and when the G.O.P. is usually the beneficiary. In this instance, the G.O.P. was outfoxed. Who are they to complain?”

I mean, the information offers nothing new, just Republican shit stirring.

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