Is The Health Fix In? Blowback On Republicans, Burma Oppression, Battle in Gaza, Voodoo Ship
Do we get health care reform? It would be nice. But it is more likely that we will get a watered down bill that gives the medical industry what they want. According to Democracy Now this morning a memo was released that claims that Obama made a deal with the big pharmaceutical industry. The memo was released to the Huffington Post and they reported it.
This was on the Huffington Post site.
“Ryan Grim ryan@huffingtonpost.com
Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma
First Posted: 08-13-09 11:10 AM | Updated: 08-13-09 05:49 PM
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 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. Or, as the memo says: “Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion.”
Representatives from both the White House and PhRMA, shown the outline, adamantly denied that it reflected reality. 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.
Critics on Capitol Hill and online responded with outrage at the reports that Obama had gone behind their backs and sold the reform movement short.
The White House meeting took place on July 7th, as first reported that evening in the Wall Street Journal.
The deal, as outlined in the memo:
Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion.
1. Agree to increase of Medicaid rebate from 15.1 - 23.1% ($34 billion)
2. Agree to get FOBs done (but no agreement on details — express disagreement on data exclusivity which both sides say does not affect the score of the legislation.) ($9 billion)
3. Sell drugs to patients in the donut hole at 50% discount ($25 billion)
This totals $68 billion
4. Companies will be assessed a tax or fee that will score at $12 billion. There was no agreement as to how or on what this tax/fee will be based.
Total: $80 billion
In exchange for these items, the White House agreed to:
1. Oppose importation
2. Oppose rebates in Medicare Part D
3. Oppose repeal of non-interference
4. Oppose opening Medicare Part B
“Non-interference” is the industry term for the status quo, in which government-driven price negotiations are barred. In other words, the government is “interfering” in the market if it negotiates lower prices. The ban on negotiating was led through Congress in 2003 by then-Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), who is now the head of PhRMA.
The rebates reference is to Medicare over-payments Big Pharma managed to wrangle from the Republican Congress that Democrats are trying to recoup. The House bill would require Big Pharma to return some of that money. The rebate proposal would save $63 billion over ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The White House, given the chance, declined to tell the Wall Street Journal for a July 17th article that it supported the effort to pursue the rebates.
The Medicare Part B item refers to “infusion drugs,” which can be administered at home. If they fall under Part B, Big Pharma gets paid more than under Part D. The agreement would leave infusion drugs in Part B.
In the section on Big Pharma’s concessions, “FOBs” refers to follow-on biological drugs. Democrats have pushed to make it easier to allow generic drug makers to produce cheaper versions of such drugs, an effort Big Pharma has resisted. The Senate health committee bill gives drug makers 12 years of market exclusivity, five more than the White House proposed.
The new uncertainty surrounding the deal comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has repeatedly said that her chamber is not bound by any agreement it is not a party to. On July 8th, the day after the Journal reported some elements of the deal, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said in a public speech that his committee would not be tied down by the agreement.
Before recess, he followed through. His committee passed a bill that allowed for re-importation and drug-price negotiations.
In the Senate, Democrats Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Byron Dorgan (N.D.) pressed White House officials at a closed-door meeting last week, asking whether the White House had tied the Senate’s hands.
The health care lobbyist said that what deal still exists is uncertain, as a result of House pressure. “Now the White House is backing away from it, as you know, because of pressure from the House, because the House was not a party to the deal,” he said. “The Speaker put enormous pressure on the White House, [saying], ‘We weren’t a party to it and we reserve the right to do whatever we want.’ And which they did in the House Energy and Commerce Committee bill, which led the White House to say, ‘Well, maybe it’s not cast in concrete.’”
Ok that is probably why that Business Week article came out recently saying that the fix was in.
Shirley and Bannister no longer represent Grassroots.org. Rachel Maddow was wrong and she admitted it tonight on MSNBC. They used to represent them. They now represent the Bradley Foundation and that group gives money to FreedomWorks and Americans for Progress, both groups involved with the teabagger protests at the Town Hall gatherings around the country.
Dick Armey left the law firm he was working for to give his full attention to FreedomWorks. It seems that the publicity that he was giving his workplace was unwanted and he made the best of it that he could but it was pretty obvious that he is not happy about being out of a big paycheck. Kudos to Rachel Maddow for hounding him so well.
Glen Beck has lost many of his advertisers when he called President Obama a racist. Perhaps advertisers will do the same to Rush Limbaugh for calling Obama a Hitler, and pull out from his radio show. That seems to have been offensive to more people than just the radical left. There does finally seem to be some blow-back to all this right wing rhetoric.
Why is it that Republicans compare Obama to Hitler? Is it because he is popular, and a good speaker? So was Reagan. If there was a night of the long knives when the left-wing of the party activists are killed off, then I would say, ok you have a point there. But where are the concentration camps? Obama wants to dismantle Guantanamo, he wants to take emphasis off of the ICE raids on immigrants. He is if anything less like Hitler in his actions than Bush and Darth Cheney who were concerned about being appeasers.
No I think they are not afraid of Obama, I think they are jealous of him. They had their Ronald Reagan and now they have nobody who can match the Democrat. They compare him to Hitler out of envy. They wish they could communicate with the style and ease of Obama. He is like another Kennedy in his sex appeal. Too bad Republicans. Get over it.
Human Rights Watch has this about repression in Burma of tribal people.
“Burma: Army Attacks Displace Thousands of Civilians
UN Security Council Should Investigate Possible War Crimes
August 14, 2009
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.(New York) - Burmese army attacks against ethnic Shan civilians in northeastern Burma have displaced more than 10,000 people in the past three weeks, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on Burma’s military government to immediately end attacks against civilians and other violations of international humanitarian law.
Following democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence this week to return to house arrest on August 11, Human Rights Watch reiterated its call to the United Nations Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Burma and to create a commission of inquiry to investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity by all parties to the fighting in Burma’s ethnic minority areas.
“While the world has been focused on the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese troops have been battering civilians as part of the military government’s longstanding campaign against ethnic minorities,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These attacks in Shan state should remind the international community that in addition to the persecution of the Burmese political opposition, Burma’s ethnic minorities are systematically marginalized and brutalized by the Burmese government and army.”
Troops have reportedly burned down more than 500 houses as they attacked 39 villages… Human Rights Watch believes this recently scaled-up forced relocation operation is part of an intensified counterinsurgency campaign, as Tatmadaw units attack the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), an insurgent armed group that operates in the area.
The Thailand-Burma Border Consortium annual internal displacement survey reports that more than 13,000 civilians were displaced in 2008 in Laikha and surrounding townships because of increased Tatmadaw operations… More than 350,000 civilians were forcibly displaced during that campaign, many of them becoming refugees in neighboring Thailand.
According to the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium’s annual survey, nearly half a million people are internally displaced in eastern Burma, either in government relocation sites, within non-state armed groups ceasefire zones, or in so-called free-fire areas highly vulnerable to Tatmadaw patrols that maintain an unlawful “shoot on sight” policy against civilians.”
From USA Today a report on a battle between Hamas and a group supporting Al Qaeda.
“Hamas fight with Islamic radicals kills 13 in Gaza
Updated 7h 26m ago
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Islamic radicals from an al-Qaeda-inspired group battled Hamas security in the Gaza Strip Friday in shootouts that killed at least 13 people.
The fighting began when Hamas forces surrounded a mosque in the southern Gaza town of Rafah where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up, including some armed with suicide belts and rifles, according to residents of the area.
The confrontation was triggered when the leader of the group defied Gaza’s Hamas rulers by declaring in a Friday prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic emirate.
Jund Ansar Allah and a number of other small, shadowy radical groups seek to enforce an even stricter version of Islamic law in Gaza and have criticized Hamas for not doing so. They are also upset that the Hamas regime has honored a cease-fire with Israel for the past seven months.
Hamas has said it seeks to set an example and does not impose its views on others. It also says its violent struggle is against Israel, not the Western world. The more radical groups’ calls for global Jihad undermines Hamas’ attempt to appear more moderate to Western eyes.”
Hamas is moderate. The sooner the west gets used to it the better. Remember Hamas was supported by Israel when it was trying to break the influence of Fatah in Palestine. Now that they have succeeded they want to get rid of Hamas. Hamas is the moderate force there now. Better negotiate with them before the real radicals take over who only want revenge.
Now for something completely wierd. There was a Russian ship that dissappeared and then reappeared. It was attacked and attacked again, or so they would like us to believe, but I just watched the movie “Bugs” and after watching that paranoid fest, well this is just plain strange.
Missing cargo ship found near Cape Verde
Reuters – Missing cargo ship ‘hijacked’
. AP – In this Dec. 29, 2008 photo the cargo ship the Arctic Sea is seen in Kotka, Finland. The Arctic Sea, …
By LYNN BERRY, Associated Press Writer Lynn Berry, Associated Press Writer – Fri Aug 14, 11:04 pm ET
MOSCOW – A Russian-manned cargo ship that vanished last month in the Atlantic was found Friday near Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa, according to French and Russian officials. There was no immediate information about the condition of the crew or whether there was anyone else on board.
The Arctic Sea — carrying a load of timber and 15 Russian sailors — disappeared after passing through the English Channel on July 28. The Maltese-flagged freighter sent radio messages as it sailed along the coasts of France and Portugal, but then all contact was lost.
“Cape Verde coast guards said they have located the boat” about 520 miles (840 kilometers) off Cape Verde, said French Defense Ministry spokesman Capt. Jerome Baroe. France was involved in search efforts together with several other countries.
Two military officials in Brussels separately confirmed the ship had been tracked and located off West Africa. The officials asked not to be named while the operation was ongoing.
Russian naval ships were ordered to pursue the ship after the Cape Verde coast guard reported the freighter was outside the country’s territorial waters to the north, Russian Ambassador to Cape Verde Alexander Karpushin told The Associated Press.
It also was unclear whether the freighter had laid anchor or was continuing to sail south. It had enough food and fuel to last through the end of the month, the ship’s Russian operator said.
The ship’s crew had reported a June 24 attack in Swedish waters by up to a dozen masked men, who they said tied them up, questioned them about drug trafficking, beat them and searched the freighter before leaving 12 hours later in a high-speed inflatable boat.
The alleged attack, unusual in itself, raised further concerns because it was not reported until the freighter had passed through Britain’s busy shipping lanes and was heading out into the wide Atlantic. There have been fears that some of the attackers might still be aboard.
The Arctic Sea, which left from Finland on June 23, had been due to make port Aug. 4 in Algeria with its euro1.3 million ($1.8 million) haul of timber.
The European Commission suggested the ship may have come under attack a second time. “Radio calls were apparently received from the ship, which had supposedly been under attack twice, the first time off the Swedish coast and then off the Portuguese coast,” said commission spokesman Martin Selmayr. He said he could add no further comment so as not to hinder the ongoing law enforcement activities.
The Portuguese Foreign Ministry said, however, that the ship was never in Portuguese territorial waters.
The ship’s operator, Solchart Arkhangelsk, said it had no information about a possible second attack. Company officials said all attempts to communicate with the crew have failed.
The ship’s captain is 50-year-old Sergei Zaretsky, a veteran of such sea voyages, said Solchart deputy director Ivan Boiko. All of the sailors are from Arkhangelsk, a port city in the far northwest of Russia.
French maritime authorities said they received radio messages on July 29 as the ship sailed past the north coast of France. The Arctic Sea’s report to British maritime authorities as it passed through the Dover Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, was the last known voice contact with the crew.
Speculation on what might have happened to the ship has ranged from suspicions that it was carrying secret cargo — possibly narcotics — to theories about a commercial dispute. Security experts have been wary of attributing its disappearance to bandits, noting that piracy is almost unheard of in European waters.
“It would seem that these acts, such as they have been reported, have nothing in common with ‘traditional’ acts of piracy or armed robbery at sea,” Selmayr said.
David Osler, a maritime journalist at Lloyd’s List in London, said there are three main types of piracy. There is the sort seen in Somalia, where a gang takes the ship and the captain, and demands a ransom in return for release.
Osler said the 18-year-old Arctic Sea was not particularly valuable. “The ship isn’t really worth stealing,” he said, noting most such ships have a life of 20-25 years.
Tags: Blowback, Burma Repression., Gaza Battle Between Hamas & Al Qaeda, Healthcare Fix, Russian Voodoo Ship