Obama, The Drug Companies, Pesky Facts, Etc.
Swampland — ... himself as an opponent of the drug companies. One of the things I want to do is to speed up generics getting introduced to the marketplace, because right now drug companies -- (applause) -- right now drug companies are fighting so that they can keep essentially their patents on their brand-name drugs a lot longer.  And if we can make those patents a little bit shorter, generics get on the market sooner, ultimately you as consumers will save money. But Ryan Grim at Huffington Post has acquired a memo from a health industry lobbyist that appears to confirm ...

Details Of The $80 Billlion Prescripton Drug Deal?
The Atlantic Politics Channel — The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim reports that he's obtained a memo outlining a deal between the White House and PhRMA (the drug industry's lobbying/trade group), passed on by an unnamed lobbyist. Both PhRMA and the White House deny that it reflects what the two sides have agreed on, but here it is, as published by The Huffington Post: ...

Leak: Is Big Pharma Calling Shots In White House?
Latest News from Air America — A leaked internal memo shows that the White House made many more concessions to the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) in their money-saving deal than they originally let on. Big Pharma conceded to cut up to $80 billion in costs in the next decade, but the White House agreed to multiple conditions, including opposing legalizing importing drugs from Canada that could mean significant savings for Americans. An internal memo obtained by the Huffington Post and examined by their unnamed health care lobbyist source who is knowledgeable about the ...

What Did The White House Promise PhRMA?
TPM Election Central — ... The White House denies it on the record, and PhRMA denies it on the record, but below, via Ryan Grim, is an outline of the deal drug manufacturers supposedly struck with the Obama administration early last month. ...

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma
The Political Carnival — By GottaLaff I've posted conflicting reports about this. HuffPost provides some behind-the-scenes insight: 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. The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return. It ...

White House cut secret deal with Big Pharma?
Preemptive Karma — ... August 13, 2009 White House cut secret deal with Big Pharma? Proving their mindless "Obamatron" creds, Huffington Post is reporting: Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma . Which is disturbing to say the least. I happen to be embarking on an academic quest which will hopefully result in my becoming a pharmacist. But to my way of looking at it there is no threat to my future earning capacity from meaningful health care reform. It's only a threat to Big Pharma and the insurance industry - both of whom are in the business of producing profits ...

Obama's deal with Big Pharma.
Althouse — HuffPo got the memo. 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. ...

REVEALED: SECRET OBAMA-PhARMA DEAL MEMO BOTH PARTIES HAVE DENIED FOR WEEK
Ace of Spades HQ — ... the White House had made specific pledges to PhARMA, and Gibbs kept saying something like "We've only pledged to look for further savings." (Something like that -- don't quote me.) How is promising not to seek savings in the bulk of the federal drug budget "looking for further savings"? Caught on memo: The specific pledges the White House denies. And a sell-out, of course, for political support, because the White House specifically promises to not seek "savings" in huge categories. Memo at the link. For once I don't mind throwing the HuffPo traffic. A memo obtained by the ...

Smoking gun: Memo proves secret deal denied by Obama and pharma?
Hot Air » Top Picks — ... . Maybe this really is the mother of all Obama lies. Thanks, HuffPo ! It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government’s leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada — and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements. In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. ...

Obama's Deal with Big Pharm
Little Green Footballs — ... Big politics meets big pharmaceuticals in the shiny new land of Hopenchange: Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma. ...

More on the PhRMA Deal -- By: Rich Lowry
The Corner on National Review Online — Here (h/t tweet tracker).

A White House Email as PhRMA Deal Confirmed
Taylor Marsh — ... Steve Benen has already highlighted a portion of yesterday’s press briefing that also caught my attention, but which in the context of the White House viral email campaign, as the White House PhRMA deal breaks wide, is even more interesting to draw out. JAKE TAPPER: A couple questions. I don’t know if you think it’s unfair to say, but it occurs to me that if the President finds himself at a town hall meeting telling the American people that he does not want to set up a panel to kill their ...

A White House Email as PhRMA Deal Reported Confirmed
Taylor Marsh — ... Steve Benen has already highlighted a portion of yesterday’s press briefing that also caught my attention, but which in the context of the White House viral email campaign, as the White House PhRMA deal breaks wide, is even more interesting to draw out. JAKE TAPPER: A couple questions. I don’t know if you think it’s unfair to say, but it occurs to me that if the President finds himself at a town hall meeting telling the American people that he does not want to set up a panel to kill their ...

Big Pharma, Big Lies
RIGHTWINGSPARKLE — ... Like I said earlier, I think I need only to quote Democrats from now on on health care because so many seem to be getting it. But to imagine that the Huffington Post, of all places, would break this story, is, well...it's just amazing: ...

Memo Confirms Deal Between PhRMA and White House
Firedoglake — ... Ryam Grim of the Huffington Post got his hands on a July 7 memo documenting the deal between PhRMA and the White House, which both are now denying but which was initially confirmed by Jim Messina, Deputy White House Chief of Staff to the New York Times. The memo was ostensibly written following the July 7 meeting at the White House between pharmaceutical industry representatives and members of the administration (who the White House ...

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News — ... prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements. In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: "Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion." Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/13/internal-memo-... [image]

Obama Sells Out To Big Pharma: Where Is The Halliburton Style Outrage?
Wizbang — That the Obama administration has sold out to Big Pharma in the power grab that it is masquerading as health care reform should surprise no one except the liberal Left that bought into the Hope and Change shake down machine. This from The Huffington Post , a blog whose writers have relentlessly beaten the drum of Halliburton corruption during the Iraq War: 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. The memo, ...

Obama Sells Out To Big Pharma: Wher Is The Halliburton Style Outrage?
Wizbang — That the Obama administration has sold out to Big Pharma in the power grab that it is masquerading as health care reform should surprise no one but the liberal Left that bought into the Hope and Change shake down machine. This from The Huffington Post , a blog whose writers have relentlessly beaten the drum of Halliburton corruption during the Iraq War: 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. The memo, ...

HuffPo gets WH memo on the Big Pharma Backroom Oval Office Deal---
Corrente — ... Ryan Grim reports documentation of earlier reports that the Obama WH made a behind the scenes deal with Big Pharma: HuffPo got hold of a WH memo on the outcome of the meeting. ...

Thursday Night News And Comedy
Latest News from Air America — We'll kick off tonight's show on Air America with a bit of news... Huffington Post's Ryan Grim joins us with the latest on the deal between the White House and Big Pharma. I spoke with him Monday night (click here to listen to that conversation), but his piece today, Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In the White House Deal With Big Pharma, brings more info to light. Tonight, Ryan will join us from Pittsburgh, where he's attending Netroots Nation, to give us an update on this story. As she does every Thursday night, Christy Harvey of the Center ...

HuffPo: Internal Memo Confirms Obama Lied About Big Giveaways In Secret Deal With Big Pharma
Hyscience — ... Bigone5555J: A Memo has surfaced revealing Obama cut a secret deal with Big Pharma, which would limit the ability of Congress to bargain for lower prices in the future. You can also see in how Obama was promising the public the same healthcare plan that he had as a Senator, which clearly was never his intention. Readers will find the HuffPo article mentioned in the video at this link. Other than the fact that Obama lied, and continues to lie, ...

The Obama-Pharma Deal
Patterico's Pontifications — [Guest post by DRJ] From the Huffington Post: “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.” So this is what the most open and transparent Administration in history looks like. – DRJ

JOHN STOSSEL: Why Big Business Supports ObamaCare. “When government is big, the well-connected alw…
Instapundit — ... government is big, the well-connected always have an advantage over the rest of us in influencing public policy. . . . It illustrates economist Steven Horwitz’s First Law of Political Economy: ‘No one hates capitalism more than capitalists.’” That’s because capitalism forces them to compete to serve their customers better. State-corporatism makes for happy producers, who don’t have to worry about what the consumers want. UPDATE: Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma. ...

Need to Read, August 14, 2009
Mojo Feed | Mother Jones —

Obama & PhARMA Make Secret Deal
Flopping Aces — ... You know the messiah is tumbling back to earth when HuffPo puts up a investigative post about the collusion between Obama and big Pharma: ...

Obama’s big deals with big pharma: Pharmaquiddick
Fausta's Blog — My first question is, is the memo authentic? Because this is really explosive: Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma: 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. The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House ...

Are Health Insurers the Enemy?
Hit & Run — ... And that's true of companies too, probably even more so. It's even more true when the White House woos wealthy industries with secret deals, and when legislators all but ask for companies to start begging for handouts and favoritism supporting their initiatives by  ...

Facing health-care oblivion, the left finally wonders: “Who really is Barack Obama?”
Hot Air » Top Picks — ... Let’s face the harsh reality — Obama has blown health care reform, big time. The opportunity of a lifetime has been squandered. The most recent revelations about backroom deals with Pharma and the other vendors of medical services drops the curtain on any hope of serious change in our costly and inefficient non-system. This is a painful admission to make. Not only does the country remain handicapped by grossly sub-par arrangements for health delivery, we also are burdened with a president who has been discredited as a progressive dedicated to a betterment of how we conduct ...

Proof That Support For ObamaCare Is Slipping
California Conservative — ... Let’s face the harsh reality: Obama has blown health care reform, big time. The opportunity of a lifetime has been squandered. The most recent revelations about backroom deals with Pharma and the other vendors of medical services drops the curtain on any hope of serious change in our costly and inefficient non-system. This is a painful admission to make. Not only does the country remain handicapped by grossly sub-par arrangements for health delivery, we also are burdened with a president who has been discredited as a ...

Wing-Nut Mobs Provide Cover for Obama/Baucus Health Care Betrayal
The BRAD BLOG — ... Huffington Post exposed an internal White House memo which showed that the President entered a back-room deal with the pharmaceutical industry "to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada." This was followed late Sunday evening by a ...

The Lanny Davis Disease and America's Health Care Debate
Commondreams.org Views — ... , preceded by a secret White House deal with that same industry to ensure there are no government negotiations for better prices (a result that, when combined with mandates to buy health insurance, would ...

The White House - PhRMA Deal: What Really Happened?
The Atlantic Politics Channel — ... Ryan Grim of the Huffington Post obtained from a health care lobbyist a July 7 memorandum that listed what PhRMA had agreed to - and what it was getting in return. Grim says that the person who prepared the memo was directly involved in the negotiations. Grim's a good reporter, and I have no reason to disbelieve him. ...

Obama’s Health Care Promises
Patterico's Pontifications — ... Several of Obama’s promises are things that can’t yet be measured or known for certain — promises like “you won’t lose your health care” and “you will save $2,500 a year.” I believe Obama kept his promise to focus on preventive health care and, in a sense, he also kept his promise to negotiate with the drug companies. However, his secret Pharma agreement is inconsistent when it comes to lowering drug prices: Pharmaceuticals reportedly did agree to $80B in cuts over 10 years, but the White House also “agreed to oppose any ...

Friends in High Places -- By: NRO Staff
Articles on National Review Online — ... this summer with the Obama White House to support health-care reform. (What PhRMA received in return remains an area of intense speculation.) It is also the key member of ASQC. Part of its deal, reports the New York Times, involved PhRMA authorizing its lobbyists to ...

Obama Strikes Backroom Deal with “Big Pharma”
Blogs For Victory — And, hey, its not me saying it - its HuffPo: 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. The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return. It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the ...

The Max Tax: Baucus Keeps Up His End of Secret PhRMA Deal
Firedoglake — ... Last month, Ryan Grim at Huffington Post uncovered an internal memo outlining at the secret deal made between Baucus, the White House, and PhRMA. According to Grim, ...

Hullabaloo — ... In August, the Huffington Post published a memo that outlined exactly what each side was going to do for the other. And Big Pharma was getting a lot more than they were giving up. ...

Carper Publicly Defends Secret PhRMA Pact; Deal Made in Exchange for Support Ads
Firedoglake — ... In a stunning moment during the Senate Finance Committee markup Sen. Tom Carper defended a secret deal that the White House, Baucus, and PhRMA had reached. The White House has ...

The Mystique of 'Free-Market Guy'
Commondreams.org Views — ... Neither mobilizes the public toward progressive change.     Recent U.S. history shows that you can't serve corporate interests at the same time you're seeking reform - of healthcare or Wall Street or any other sector. Not when big corporations are the problem . . . and the major obstacles to change.   Placating big business en route to social reform is like downing a flask of whiskey en route to kicking alcoholism. Yet there was the Obama White House this summer entering into secret deals with the pharmaceutical lobby protecting that industry's outsized profits. If Obama is ...

Baucus, Menendez, and Carper Vote to Defend PhRMA Deal
Firedoglake — ... which would fill the Medicare part D dough nut hole. He would pay for the change by making the pharmaceutical industry pay a rebate for the overcharging of dual eligible Medicare/Medicaid seniors. The amendment would fully cover the cost of filling the donut hole and provide an additional $50 billion in government savings. The amendment would violate the secret deal reach between PhRMA, The White House, and Chairman Baucus. ...

Keep Your Friends Close, and Lobbyists Closer: Is WH Drafting Own Bill Minus a Public Option?
Firedoglake — ... While they may or may not be writing their own bill, they need to reassure health care industry stake holders that those deals will be honored in the final bill, even if Baucus can't get them through is committee. Because the last thing the White House needs right now is stakeholders leaking embarrassing documents because they're getting hinky at the thought that their deals might go south. ...

White House ‘Official’ Badmouths Labor Leader For Expecting Obama To Keep His Promises
Firedoglake — ... Note none of these promise are part the Senate Finance Committee bill. Obama has made no effort to fight for the inclusion of some of these promises (public option, employer mandate, minimum medical loss ratio) and months ago even made secret deals promising to actively work to kill other promises (drug re-importation, and direct drug price negotiation). ...

New Evidence of Pharma's Sweetheart Deal
The New Republic blogs — ... and Huffington Post --was pretty straightforward. The industry agreed to embrace health care reform and, later on, launched a massive advertising campaign to promote the cause. In exchange, the White House and Senate Finance--which had been asking various industries to pledge concessions that would help pay for the cost of coverage expansions--promised not to seek more than $80 in reduced payments to drug makers. To an industry as big and profitable as the drug makers, giving up $80 billion over ten years wouldn t seem like much of a sacrifice--a point critics started making ...

Pharma Industry to Net $137B from Deal with White House
Open Left - Quick Hits's RSS Feed — ... PhRMA, the lobby entity for the industry's heavy hitters, reached a secret deal with the White House and the Senate Finance Committee in June. As detailed in a memo first published by The Huffington Post, the Obama administration agreed to oppose congressional efforts to use government leverage to bargain for lower drug prices. The White House also agreed not to shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would have cost the industry billions in reduced reimbursements. All this in exchange for $80 billion over ten years to help push for reform. ...

Big Pharma’s Bitter Pill
The Republic of T. — ... formulas enough to extend patents with “new” versions of the same drug (when they’re not just paying off generic manufacturers to stay out of the market). Some of it goes to paying off huge criminal fines for promoting drugs for unapproved uses. (A paltry sum, compared to their profits from the same activity that got them fined.) They invest some of it to keep 2.3 lobbyists for every lawmaker on Capitol Hill. And the return on their investment has been a deal with the White House that’s just loaded with giveaways and huge benefits for ...

President Obama Lies About Health Care Reform Cost Control
Firedoglake — ... amendment, which was previously co-sponsored by Obama, would allow Americans to buy cheaper drugs from Canada or Europe. The CBO projects that it would save Americans roughly $100 billion dollars on their health care costs over the next decade. It is a very popular, bipartisan, and a common-sense solution to bring down health care costs in this country. It is not in the bill because Obama promised the drug industry he would work to keep drug reimportation out of the bill as part of their secret deal. ...

Drug-import legislation dies in Senate
Iowa Independent — ... Under that agreement, the drug makers pledged up to $80 billion toward health-care reform over the next decade if Democratic leaders would withhold their support for several proposals that would cut further into the companies’ profits, including the drug re-importation provision. As a result, White House officials in recent days had ...

White House as Helpless Victim on Health Care
Commondreams.org Views — ... , which examined substantial evidence showing that, contrary to Obama's occasional public statements in support of a public option, the White House clearly intended from the start that the final health care reform bill would contain no such provision and was actively and privately participating in efforts to shape a final bill without it.  From the start, assuaging the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was a central preoccupation of the White House -- hence the deal negotiated in strict secrecy with Pharma to ban bulk price negotiations and drug reimportation, a ...

Obama Gets Health Reform Bill He Wanted, Lieberman Gets Thanks, Howard Dean Gets Insulted
Democracy for New Mexico — ... [There is] substantial evidence showing that, contrary to Obama's occasional public statements in support of a public option, the White House clearly intended from the start that the final health care reform bill would contain no such provision and was actively and privately participating in efforts to shape a final bill without it. From the start, assuaging the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was a central preoccupation of the White House -- hence the deal negotiated in strict secrecy with Pharma to ban bulk price negotiations and drug reimportation, a blatant ...

Did White House Pressure FDA To Help Kill Measure To Make Drugs Cheaper?
TPMMuckraker — ... OMB is the Office of Management and Budget. All of this is occurring against a backdrop of President Obama's controversial "deal" with the pharmaceutical industry in June, under which the industry pledged $80 billion in discounts for consumers in exchange for protection against tougher measures targeting drug companies. The industry group Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association pledged to back Obama's overhaul. A key part of that deal was reportedly for the administration to kill any drug import measure like Dorgan's. ...

Health Care Reform: By the Corporations, For the Corporations
Jesus' General — ... First, there is clear and unambiguous evidence of Obama handing a major concession to the health care industry which protected their profits and undermined the interests of the people: his deal, struck behind closed doors, to ban bulk price negotiation and reimportation of drugs. ...

Senate Health Care Bill is Built on Obama’s Broken Promises
Firedoglake — ... Again, this is another broken promise that was part of Obama’s secret sweetheart deal with PhRMA. Promise: ...

See Jane Ignore Reality
The New Republic blogs — ... . She's also correct to highlight the many corruption stories that need telling, to say nothing of the ones already told . But what's with the quote marks around "poor"?* This bill would mean Medicaid coverage for an additional 15 million people a year, all of them living below or just above the poverty line. For a sense of scale, that's more than double the entire population now covered by the state Children's Health Insurance Program. This bill would also subsidize coverage in the exchanges for (roughly) another 15 million people a year, the majority of whom would also ...

Criticizing the President on Health Care is “Naderite” and “Hurts the Progressive Agenda”
Firedoglake — ... which examined substantial evidence showing that, contrary to Obama’s occasional public statements in support of a public option, the White House clearly intended from the start that the final health care reform bill would contain no such provision and was actively and privately participating in efforts to shape a final bill without it. From the start, assuaging the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was a central preoccupation of the White House — hence the deal negotiated in strict secrecy with Pharma to ban bulk price negotiations and ...

New Year’s Resolution: Don’t Apologize for Democrats
Commondreams.org Views — ... and pretended not to notice when Rahm Emanuel began signaling last spring that the White House had no intention of pushing for it. Predictably, we've ended up with corporate-enrichment legislation that forcibly delivers tens of millions of customers to big insurers and big pharma -- with almost no cost controls because of private deals cut in the White House . In the New York Times before Christmas, beneath an accurate header "Corporate Glee," a news article asserted: "The insurance companies were probably among the merriest of industries last week . . . But the drug ...

Press corps grills Gibbs: Um, didn’t Obama totally shamelessly lie about C-SPAN?
Hot Air » Top Picks — ... during swine-flu season. There is, and can be, no defense here, and everyone in the room knows it. The point of asking is simply to make Gibbs look constipated — which, of course, it does. In fact, the best he can do by way of an answer is to mumble that The One wants a bill on his desk as soon as possible, an implicit admission that the White House is prepared to sacrifice all its gauzy promises about transparency on the altar of finally ramming this travesty through. But then, we already knew that . Boost your sound before you watch the first clip, as the audio’s very low ...

Dear President Obama: Time to Stop Letting Corporations Write the Health Care Bill
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... . Only a few weeks earlier, the Huffington Post exposed the sweetheart deal negotiated between the White House and PhRMA in exchange for $150 million in political advertising. And Harry Reid kept Byron Dorgan's popular drug reimportation amendment off the floor of the Senate ...

Dear President Obama: Time to Stop Letting Corporations Write the Health Care Bill
Commondreams.org Views — ... . Only a few weeks earlier, the Huffington Post exposed the sweetheart deal negotiated between the White House and PhRMA in exchange for $150 million in political advertising. And Harry Reid kept Byron Dorgan's popular drug reimportation amendment off the floor of the Senate ...

Obama: Hey, maybe this ObamaCare process should have been more transparent
Hot Air » Top Picks — ... top aide’s office, Boxer said. Keenly aware how tense the talks were, the White House dispatched two aides who together have decades of experience in the Senate — Jim Messina and Peter Rouse — to work with Nelson. They relayed their intelligence to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who monitored the talks from a dinner in Georgetown. Am I hallucinating or didn’t that HuffPo story that blew up back in August about a secret deal with the pharmaceutical industry also involve a White House angle or two ? Incidentally, this makes ...