Pressure Drop Where It Matters – Democrat Shills for Big Pharma

big_pharma

Thirteen Democrats in the US Senate voted against their constituents in favor of the pharmaceutical lobby the other night.

I’ve been trying lately to make it easy for those who follow me on Facebook or Twitter or on this blog to put pressure on those senators who are vulnerable in the next election by posting their office phone numbers in one easy-to-look-up place.

Today I’m taking the focus off the Repubs.

Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders introduced an amendment that would have made it legal for Americans to purchase prescription drugs from Canada, where prices can be as much as 90% lower for the same drugs produced in the same facilities by the same manufacturers, because lawmakers in the US, at the bidding of Big Pharma lobbyists, have acted for years to keep prices artificially high for Americans.

The amendment was supported by a dozen Republicans, way more than enough for it to pass if Democrats had stuck together.  Here are the Dirty Baker’s Dozen we can hold responsible for enabling the continued gouging of their constituents:

Michael Bennett of Colorado, Tom Carper and Chris Coons of Delaware, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Jon Tester of Montana, Bob Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Mark Warner of Virginia, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray of Washington

Seven of these turncoats have to stand for re-election in 2018.  I’m listing them with the phone numbers for their Washington and regional offices.

Tom Carper, Delaware, 202-224-2441, 302-573-6291, 302-674-3308, 302-856-7690

Jon Tester, Montana, 202-224-2644, 406-252-0550, 406-586-4450, 406-723-3277, 406-365-2391, 406-452-9585, 406-449-5401, 406-257-3360, 406-728-3003

Bob Menendez, New Jersey, 202-224-4744, 973-645-3030, 856-757-5353

Martin Heinrich, New Mexico, 202-224-5521, 505-346-6601, 505-325-5030, 575-523-6561, 575-622-7113, 505-988-6647

Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota, 202-224-2043, 701-258-4648, 701-232-8030, 701-225-0974, 701-775-9601, 701-852-0703

Bob Casey, Pennsylvania, 202-224-6324, 215-405-9660, 570-941-0930, 814-874-5080, 717-231-7540, 412-803-7370, 814-357-0314, 610-782-9470

Maria Cantwell, Washington, 202-224-3441, 206-220-6400, 509-353-2507, 253-572-2281, 425-303-0114, 360-696-7838, 509-946-8106

If you live in one of their states, you can apply the kind of pressure that counts to make your voice and opinions matter.  Simply call at least one of the phone numbers for your Senator, and leave the message that you’re a constituent, you’re paying attention, you will vote in the Democratic primary in 2018, and your support will be determined by how your Senator stands on the issues that matter to you.

Let them know that you saw how they put the interests of Big Pharma ahead of your own interests, and that if they don’t change their subservience to corporate lobbyists, you’ll be working to defeat them in the 2018 primary election.

Pressure Drop Where It Matters – Foreign Relations

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Jeff Flake, Committee Chair, Arizona, 202-224-4521, 602-840-1891, 520-575-8633

Bob Corker, Tennessee, 202-224-3344, 901-683-1910, 615-279-8125, 865-637-4180, 731-664-2294, 423-753-2263, 423-756-2757

John Barasso, Wyoming, 202-224-6441, 307-672-6456, 307-362-5012, 307-856-6642, 307-772-2451, 307-261-6413

The three senators listed above are Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who are up for re-election in 2018, the next election cycle for Congress.  The phone numbers are for their Washington and regional offices.

If you live in one of these states, you can apply the kind of pressure that counts to make your voice and opinions matter.  Simply call at least one of the phone numbers for your Senator, and leave the message that you’re a constituent, you’re paying attention, you will vote in 2018, and your vote will be determined by how your Senator stands on the issues that matter to you.

Do it every time there’s a critical issue before the Foreign Relations Committee, like today.

January 11, 2017 — The Committee is holding hearings on the nomination of Rex Tillerson to be Trump’s Secretary of State.  Let your senator know how you feel about turning America’s top diplomatic job over to  a man to whom Vladimir Putin personally awarded the highest civilian honor Russia gives to non-citizens, a man who stands to benefit financially by lifting sanctions imposed on Russia after its annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine, sanctions he personally lobbied against, a man who financed climate change denialism even while being warned by his own scientists about the global warming catastrophe to which his corporation was contributing, under whose leadership Exxon profited from illegal deals with designated terrorist nations, just to name a few of his conflicts and betrayals of America’s interests.  Let your senator know that you’ll be voting in 2018, and you’ll be working to defeat him if he supports Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State.

Pressure Drop Where It Matters – Judiciary

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Jeff Flake, Arizona, 202-224-4521, 602-840-1891, 520-575-8633

Ted Cruz, Texas, 202-224-5922, 512-916-5834, 214-599-8749, 713-718-3057, 210-340-2885, 903-593-5130, 956-686-7339

Orrin Hatch, Utah, 202-224-5251, 435-586-8435, 801-625-5672, 801-375-7881, 801-524-4380, 435-634-1795

The three senators listed above are Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who are up for re-election in 2018, the next election cycle for Congress.  The phone numbers are for their Washington and regional offices.

If you live in one of these states, you can apply the kind of pressure that counts to make your voice and opinions matter.  Simply call at least one of the phone numbers for your Senator, and leave the message that you’re a constituent, you’re paying attention, you will vote in 2018, and your vote will be determined by how your Senator stands on the issues that matter to you.

Do it every time there’s a critical issue before the Judiciary Committee, like today.

January 10 – 11, 2017 — The Committee is holding hearings on the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be Trump’s Attorney General.  Let your senator know how you feel about putting control of federal law enforcement in the hands of an avowed racist who’s dedicated his life to fighting against voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and women’s safety from violent abuse, to name just a few of his odious positions.  Let your senator know that you’ll be voting in 2018, and you’ll be working to defeat him if he supports Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.

Affordable by Any Other Name

trumpcare

What’s in a name?

Sometimes a lot.  Take the name Obamacare.  While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a tremendous success at bringing healthcare to millions of previously uninsured, reducing the rate of increase of healthcare costs, extending the solvency of Medicare, reducing drug costs for seniors, and eliminating unfair practices like cutting off coverage for people as soon as they get sick, while most of its individual features are wildly popular in themselves, the pejorative nickname “Obamacare” given to  its insurance marketplace reforms by Tea Party radicals and anti-government professional know-nothings have made it an easy target for misleading propaganda.

Congressional Republicans rode to victory in 2010 on a package of outright lies about the ACA, abetted by prejudice against the first black President and the usual low voter turnout in midterm elections.  They’ve spent the next six years taking repeated meaningless votes to repeal the dreaded mythical “government takeover” of medical care.  Now that they control all branches of the federal government, they find themselves having to deliver on their pledges to repeal and replace.

This presents the GOP with a serious problem.  They can’t repeal the ACA without throwing millions of their own base voters back into a dysfunctional unregulated health insurance market.  They’ve promised to replace the ACA with a different plan that won’t take away anyone’s current coverage, but they have no such plan.

The ACA already is the Republican healthcare plan.  They call it Obamacare, but it’s more accurately “Romneycare” or “GOPcare” or “HeritageCare”.  With a very few changes, the plan Obama pushed through Congress in his first term was the plan the rightwing think tank Heritage Foundation came up with as an alternative to “Hillarycare”, the comprehensive health care package created under the First Lady’s leadership in the ’90s.  They managed to get it implemented in Massachusetts under Governor Mitt Romney, and though it was far from comprehensive and left control of healthcare in the hands of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, it’s been enough of an improvement over the chaotic unregulated system it replaced to enjoy wide popular and political support.  It’s the only plan the Republicans have ever had.

With the Pussygrabber-in-Chief promising to preserve popular features of the ACA like pre-existing condition coverage and extended eligibilty for young adult children on their parents’ plans, with hospitals in the rural areas of red states that serve the heart of the Republican coalition in danger of collapse if the ACA is repealed, with insurance companies ready to pull out of the market if the individual mandate is taken away, the Congressional Republicans are facing a massive backlash if they don’t fulfill their promise to repeal, and a catastrophic collapse if they abandon the only alternative plan they’ve ever been able to come with, the plan they love to call “Obamacare”.

Here’s my modest proposal.

Forget about “Repeal and Replace”.  Go for “Repair and Rename”.  Fix the problems around the edges of the ACA that have become apparent to anyone paying attention during the rollout over the last six years. and then rebrand it as “Trumpcare”.

Let the Republicans have their old market-based health care plan back.  It was never the plan progressive Democrats wanted anyway,  Let them call modest repairs a “repeal” if they want to, give them the comfortable fiction that continuity under a  new name is “replacement”.  Let them own the individual mandate, and the profit guarantees for private insurance companies, and the price-gouging by Big Pharma.  Stop calling it Obamacare, free the Democrats from having to defend it, and let us pursue the real alternatives to for-profit health care, starting with competitive public options on any blue-state exchanges where we can get them implemented, and a renewed commitment by the DNC for a national  single-payer system.

Call it Trumpcare, let the Twit-in-Chief claim all the credit for it, he will anyway.  Who cares what nickname the system carries, as long as we don’t throw tens of millions of struggling families to the wolves.  Who knows, if we let Drumpf and the GOP hog the credit, some of those red state governors who’ve refused to accept federally-funded expansion of Medicaid out of spite might start allowing their less-fortunate constituents to have the same benefits enjoyed by their blue-state brothers and sisters.  Millions more could get health insurance coverage just by giving the GOP back their own plan.

Really, what’s in a name?  The ACA by any other name would smell as . . . well, smelly.