President Obama writes a new health reform prescription (Drug reimportation vote)

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Read the whole article to "get" the FDA letter reference.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

President Obama writes a new health reform prescription

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, December 16, 2009

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine. "We'll tell the pharmaceutical companies 'thanks, but no, thanks' for the overpriced drugs -- drugs that cost twice as much here as they do in Europe and Canada," he said back then.

On Tuesday, the matter came to the Senate floor -- and President Obama forgot the "no, thanks" part. Siding with the pharmaceutical lobby, the administration successfully fought against the very idea Obama had championed.

"It's got to be a little awkward," said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).

It's even more awkward for millions of Americans who are forced to pay up to 10 times the prices Canadians and Europeans pay for identical medication, often produced in the same facilities by the same manufacturers, simply because the U.S. government refuses to rein in drug prices. snip

One after the other, the drug industry's friends from pharmaceutical-manufacturing states New Jersey, Delaware and North Carolina went to the floor Tuesday to cite the FDA letter.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Bristol-Myers Squibb) warned that "you may have a heart attack" because of counterfeit medicine from abroad.

"This is a matter of life or death," agreed Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Merck).

Carper (D-AstraZeneca) cited "remaining safety and soundness and health concerns," while Sen. Kay Hagan (D-GlaxoSmithKline) voiced "serious doubts that we can adequately ensure the safety of the drug supply."

These arguments don't hold up well, considering that 40 percent of the active ingredients in American prescription drugs come from India and China, and that the latter slipped tainted heparin past the FDA. But fright was about the best argument opponents could use to defeat a popular proposal that would save the federal government $19 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Consumers would save many times that. snip

[Mari333]

1. heh. They arent even hiding their affair anymore with Corporations

at least the GOP was honestly in bed with them, everyone knew it.
The Dems are fucking the corporate overlords and still saying they are virgins.

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2. ain't that the truth

[msongs]

3. the content of a man's character, on display for the phony peace prize crowd nt

[nightrain]

4. seems the corporations got what they were surreptitiously promised by Obama and Rahm

in July.

Thanks, but no thanks Obama.

[secondwind]

5. yeah! but we can feed our children and our pets shit from China....now THAT's alright. Michael

Moore for President, is how I feel right now.

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6. agree- it's not like FDA's word is the be all and end all

In this case, looks like FDA did Obama's bidding to help kill this bill. :grr: