For two days I’ve seen a whole lot of angst and anger at the
13 Democrats who voted for Big Pharma
All tied into the failure of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s Amendment (in a flurry of amendments voted upon already and more to come) to the farce which is the Continuing Resolution on the Budget, because our Congress hasn’t been able to pass an actual Budget bill in a couple of years now.
This is the text of the (D) Ron Wyden amendment #187 (which my U.S. Senator Patty Murray voted YES on), which covers the same ground as the Klobuchar Amendment:
SA 187. Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. Sanders) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution
S. Con. Res. 3, setting forth the congressional budget for the United
States Government for fiscal year 2017 and setting forth the
appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2018 through 2026; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of title IV, add the following:
SEC. 4__. POINT OF ORDER AGAINST LEGISLATION THAT DOES NOT
LOWER DRUG PRICES.
(a) Findings.--The Senate finds the following:
(1) Total annual drug spending in the United States is
projected to reach more than $500,000,000,000 by 2018.
(2) One out of five Americans age 19 to 64 cannot afford to
fill their prescriptions.
(3) Spending on prescription drugs in the United States
grew by 12 percent in 2014, faster than in any year since
2002.
(4) Medicare part D drug spending was $90,000,000,000 in
2015, and is expected to increase to $216,000,000,000 by
2025.
(5) Medicare part B drug spending also more than doubled
between 2005 and 2015, increasing from $9,000,000,000 in 2005
to $22,000,000,000 in 2015.
(6) In 2014, prescription drug spending in Medicaid
increased by 24 percent.
(7) During the Presidential campaign, the President-elect
said, ``When it comes time to negotiate the cost of drugs,
we're going to negotiate like crazy, folks'' and his campaign
website said that, ``allowing consumers access to imported,
safe and dependable drugs from overseas will bring more
options to consumers.''.
(8) After being elected, the President-elect said, ``I'm
going to bring down drug prices. I don't like what's happened
with drug prices.''.
(9) On January 11, 2017, the President-elect said, ``We
have to create new bidding procedures for the drug industry,
because they are getting away with murder.''.
(b) Point of Order.--It shall not be in order in the Senate
to consider a bill or joint resolution reported pursuant to
section 2001 or 2002, or an amendment to, motion on,
conference report on, or amendment between the Houses in
relation to such a bill or joint resolution that does not, as
promised by the President-elect, lower drug prices as
certified by the Congressional Budget Office.
(c) Waiver and Appeal.--Subsection (b) may be waived or
suspended in the Senate only by an affirmative vote of three-
fifths of the Members, duly chosen and sworn. An affirmative
vote of three-fifths of the Members of the Senate, duly
chosen and sworn, shall be required to sustain an appeal of
the ruling of the Chair on a point of order raised under
subsection (b).
It does not specifically provide for importation or re-importation of drugs from Canada to the United States. But, seriously folks, why are we even talking about IMPORTING drugs made right here in America back into our country from Canada?
Doesn’t that sound ridiculous to anyone besides me?
Shouldn’t the goal be to get our Congress to reign in the Wild Times of the drug producing manufacturers and REGULATE their market, and bring the pricing they negotiate with every other nation on Earth down to something more reasonable in our nation?
You all spending your time and outrage over this issue and bringing it down on the heads of fellow Democrats while the THRICE BE DAMNED REPUBLICANS are voting to gut our entire healthcare Law and rip insurance away from at least 20 million and throw another 10 to 30 million to the wolves of the private market — with pre-existing conditions once again a reason for a DENIAL OF COVERAGE letter or a notice of END OF BENEFITS when you have gotten as much help in paying for your cancer treatments as they think you deserve for the year, or worse yet, for your entire life.
You don’t like that Democratic Senators took campaign contributions from Drug Manufacturers? Tell me, please, where in the world are they going to get the money necessary to run against and BEAT their Republican opponents, with all their rightwing Citizens United, black money SUPERPac dollars?
This is the real world, like it or not.
But don’t give in to the urge to commit internecine warfare when it is neither warranted nor useful.
You want something useful to do?
Take the advice of the Indivisible Guide and it’s team of former Congressional Staffers:
Organize coordinated calling to your own elected members of the House and Senate.
Call their Local offices, identify yourself as a Constituent up front, give them your first name and precinct, they don’t need anymore than that to classify your comments for scoring the issue.
Have a script ready. If you need one, check out the ones already written by some of the local Indivisible Teams out there already, like the one from Austin, Texas:
I am calling to ask my [Senator or Representative] to vote NO on the repeal of the ACA and the mandates which help Obamacare function. The ACA has made it possible for 20 million more Americans to get health insurance, reduced the uninsured rate to the lowest in history, and made health insurance within reach for millions of people. It also offers important consumers protections that protect Americans’ the health and financial security. We should not return to the time when a family was an illness away from bankruptcy, and taxpayers had to pay $75 to $125 BILLION to cover the costs of care for the uninsured. Please vote NO on repealing the ACA/Obamacare without plans for a simultaneous replacement.
Let’s take up these questions of who is a better progressive or liberal at some later date, can we please? We’ve got 20 million people about to lose their access to doctors and (in many cases) medications necessary to sustain life.
Let’s GET OUR ACTIVISM ON and stop the Republican Horde from doing it’s First Worst Deed. Because I guarantee you — there are a lot more of these coming at us.