It's Time, Yet Again, To Play "That's Different!"...

Here's Barack Milhaus Obama - now officially the Industry Slut In Charge of Health Care Reform - explaining, ages ago, how he was going to he was going to tackle the evil, greedy pharmaceutical industry:

You can skip the personal anecdotes and generic bullshit by going straight to the 4:15 mark.

OK, so what we have is the President of the United States who yesterday sold out his administration, his own party, Medicare and taxpayers for a pharmaceutical industry gift of $150 million in lobbying money for Obamacare.

Lobbying money.

And what did this cost us? Well, Democrats were looking for pharmaceutical industry price breaks for Medicare in the neighborhood of $120 to $160 billion. President Obama has capped it at $80 billion. Yep, for selling us out for between $40 and $80 billion, Barack Milhaus Obama picked himself up $150 million in lobbying money. So who's running the big fuckin' conspiracy now?

I know this will come as a shock, but nothing about Barack Milhaus Obama's sellout will matter to progressives, liberals and Democrats. You can lay down good money that excuses will be made, rationalizations will be offered, and they will find some way to convince themselves they aren't really the industry sluts they've just become.

Of course, had the Republicans pulled a sleazy stunt like this they'd be screaming bloody murder. But this is Barack Milhaus Obama's sleaze, and as we all know...

That's different!

Update: Here's more on Barack Milhaus Obama's sell out, from the lying right-wing astroturfers at Huffington Post. Here's more from HuffPo on what Milhaus was saying then, and what he's doing now.

Comments

[markg8]

Weee! He did get the drug industry to pony up $150 million for a couple of non profits. Pretty cool. And you laughed when I said he was shrewd. Oh and like I said before let's see how much the drug companies give up in the final bill shall we?

Meanwhile here's some stuff from one of those non profits Families USA site.

http://www.familiesusa.org/

They have some pretty cool stuff like:

Comparative Effectiveness Research

Understanding the Role of the "Exchange" or "Gateway" discusses the new health insurance marketplace

Why Is a Public Insurance Plan an Important Part of Health Reform?

10 Reasons to Support the Health Care Reform Bills

Coverage for America: We All Stand to Gain provides state-by-state estimates of how many people will gain coverage under the House health reform bill.

[markg8]

And I know you'll just say I'm trying to change the subject but it seems Lindsay Graham is out of step with all you dirty hippy rightwing peaceniks who suddenly want to get out of Afghanistan. It's not too late to write him a strongly worded letter.

Appearing on Face The Nation, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called for more funding and troops for Afghanistan: "My message to my Democratic colleagues is that we made mistakes in Iraq. Let's not Rumsfeld Afghanistan. Let's don't do this thing on the cheap. Let's have enough combat power and engagement across the board to make sure we're successful. And quite frankly, we all have got a lot of ground to make up."

[richard mcenroe]

Hey, reptile, it ain't hypothetical anymore. And you know what? He liked it a lot less than I did.

[markg8]

Oh Richard you're such a hero. Throw Granny under the health care plan? Where did you get that pithy bullshit?

[Dennis the Peasant]

Mark-

Obama didn't get anyone to "pony up" $150 million. He sold the U.S. people out for $150 million. Probably in silver.

So evidently you're OK with Obama stiffing your beloved "people" for $40 to $80 billion... Just as long as your side wins. Eh?

It really isn't about the issues for you, is it? It's just about winning.

[Dennis the Peasant]

And now that you can't explain away Obama's multi-billion dollar liplock with Big Pharma, you scurry off to the subject of Afghanistan.

[richard mcenroe]

Reptile -- probably from page 498, starting with lines 10-12 and reading down.

Dennis, I'm confused. If the insurance companies gave Barry $150 million, what are they paying ME with?

[markg8]

He sold us out? Oh I see the bill has been passed by both houses of congress and he's ready to sign it into law. That was quicker than I expected.

Seeing as the CBO says under the House bill 96% of all Americans will be covered by private insurance and 4% by the public plan you can look for private insurance companies, forced to compete like they ought to, drive those drug prices down through negotiation, the same way the UAW gets the same deals from Ford, Chrysler and GM. WellPoint: "Why should I pay you that kind of price for Lipitor when BCBS is only paying X?"

They're going to have to because under the new bill they won't be able to just deny drugs to their policy holders or dump the really sick ones onto the public plan. Now if you don't think that'll work then why the fuck did you vote for the clowns who passed the same kind of legislation in the Medicare Part D drug bill?

You're criticizing Obama for playing winning politics by pitting stakeholders like insurance and drug companies, as they try to preserve their own personal fiefdoms against each other, for the benefit of the rest of the country.

And frankly I'm not worried about any of these negotiations. The sausage isn't seasoned yet let alone in the tube. House leaders aren't going to let the likes of Baucus and Enzi decide the fate of this bill.

[markg8]

Richard try to keep up, he's talking about drug companies.

[markg8]

you scurry off to the subject of Afghanistan.

What'd I tell ya? Make sure you make that angry phonecall telling Lindsay Graham you want out of Afghanistan yesterday here:
(202) 224-5972

[Dennis the Peasant]

Well, you've shown your colors: It is all about winning... and nothing else. Empty suit? Meet empty suit.

And just how does pledging to forgo tens of billions in drug cost reductions for Medicare so you can get 150 million in free advertising end up benefiting "the rest of the country"?

[Peter UK]

When the Mafia do it,it is called racketeering. I wonder what else is for sale? The Iranian bomb?

[markg8]

Well, you've shown your colors: It is all about winning... and nothing else. Empty suit? Meet empty suit.

Oh please Dennis, almost every single of one of your recent avalanche of posts has been about "winning". Oh you took a little time out to mock feminists but for the most part it's all about the opening you think you have to tear down the agenda of the left. I've posted all kinds of policy info you've ignored while you treat us to crap like You Tubes from January 2008 before the Nevada caucuses telling us that's proof Obama is trying to incite violence against wingnuts just like Rush Limbaugh is against Dem House reps.

And just how does pledging to forgo tens of billions in drug cost reductions for Medicare so you can get 150 million in free advertising end up benefiting "the rest of the country"?

Think about it, you got nothing here. Pelosi and Waxman push back, Baucus steps up and tells Grassley and Enzi regretfully they're not going to get their way, everybody keeps the campaign contributions, Republican and Democrats alike, and Billy Tauzin gets fired for getting played by Barack Obama when actual competition lowers the price of not only drugs but all health care expenditures.

[PeterUK.]

Boss,The Plane,the plane.

[a giant slor]

On the contrary, Dennis, the progressive blogs and commenters I've seen are going apeshit about this:

http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2009/08/obvious-question.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-kilkenny/if-private-industry-loves_b_254867.html
http://www.correntewire.com/all_you_need_know_about_democrats_health_plan
http://firedoglake.com/2009/08/09/democrats-in-pay-for-play-deal-with-phrma/
http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2009/08/game_changerby.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09rich.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/08/white-houses-deal-with-big-pharma.html