PHARMACEUTICALS AS A PUBLIC UTILITY UNIT III: PRIVATE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY – HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH
“Following the lead of pharma-friendly Rep. Richard Neal, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee this week crushed several progressive amendments to a House drug pricing bill that would have expanded the number of medicines covered by the legislation and extended lower costs to the nation’s tens of millions of uninsured.
The Intercept reported Wednesday that Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, warned his Democratic colleagues against offering any amendments to the Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019 (H.R. 3) during the committee’s markup of the legislation on Tuesday.
“We intend to stick with the measure in front of us,” Neal told The Hill.
But Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), the author of a more ambitious drug pricing bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in April brushed aside in favor of the more moderate H.R. 3, introduced amendments anyway during the marathon hearing.” – – Common Dreams writer Jake Johnson, Oct. 24, 2019
According to Kaiser Health News, since 2007 (in 2008 Obama became president and the Democrats had majority control of the legislature) Democratic Representative Neal has taken $670,100 from the pharmaceutical industry and Democratic House Speaker Pelosi has taken $205,300.
This article had originally been intended to expose corruption and fraud in the pharmaceutical industry. Of course, it is rampant. From foisting unsafe drugs on an unsuspecting public, to preventing lifesaving drugs from being available to dying people, to price gouging and cheating in every way imaginable, to offshoring profits to avoid legitimate taxes, to fraudulently overcharging Medicare/Medicaid, the private pharmaceutical industry places outlandish “profits” and exorbitant CEO pay above any sense of decency, above any sense of concern for one’s fellow man, above even the deaths of children.
But “big pharma’s” blood money buys accomplices, it buys the rule makers who could stop the deaths of children, who could stop the deaths of diabetics who can no longer afford insulin, who could have stopped the OxyContin addiction ravaging and ending the lives of hundreds of thousands of our people, our youth. But the money is too enticing – it “wins” elections. Yet it is blood money just the same, no matter how one tries to make it look pretty, to sanitize it. And the blood is on the hands of each and every legislator who takes this money no matter how they try to justify it.
One is reminded of the words of the late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen: “Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong. Right is right even if nobody is right.”
Scroll slowly down through the “Democratic” legislators below and the dollars they have taken from “big pharma” since 2007 according to research done by Kaiser Health News. And this is just the Democrats. The Republicans are equally complicit.
You are scrolling through corruption. You are scrolling through children sacrificed to win elections. You are looking at why nothing is done for the average working people of America. You are looking at why, in desperate exasperation, these same working people put a Donald Trump in office because they intuitively knew their “career” politicians cared nothing about them, or their children, or their families. You are looking at blood money and until the truly decent working people of America rise up against the rot this represents in “our” government, nothing will change. And this is just the blood money of one among many oligarchic, plutocratic predators destroying what little we have left of our nation, our democracy.
Pharmaceutical Money Taken By Democratic Politicians Since 2007
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) $63,000
Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) $45,000
Rep Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) $44,000
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) $59,500
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) $53,289
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) $375,485
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) $534,000
Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) $52,000
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) $127,500
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) $44,500
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) $34,750
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA) $35,500
Rep Cheri Bustos (D-IL) $97,500
Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) $185,942
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) $225,000
Rep. Donald Beyer (D-VA) $31,500
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) $101,000
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) $37,000
Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) $20,000
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) $105,500
Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) $680,110
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) $1,153,947
Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO) $39,000
Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA) $18,000
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) $28,000
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) $18,000
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) $20,000
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) $80,000
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) $187,256
Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) $536,700
Rep. André Carson (D-IN) $70,500
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) $92,500
Sen. Christopher Coons (D-DE) $549,000
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) $31,500
Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) $206,500
Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) $210,850
Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) $37,500
Sen. Catherine Masto (D-NV) $49,000
Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) $131,400
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) $468,659
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) $68,000
Rep. Michael Doyle (D-PA) $66,000
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) $113,500
Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA) $58,500
Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) $119,436
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) $51,500
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) $35,000
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) $188,000
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) $758,100
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) $212,500
Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) $67,546
Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) $129,500
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) $259,498
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) $17,000
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) $38,500
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) $17,000
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) $1,077,250
Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY) $21,000
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) $65,000
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) $197,604
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) $217,545
Rep. Denny Heck (D-WA) $33,500
Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) $20,000
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) $26,900
Sen. Margaret Hassan (D-NH) $19,000
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) $61,000
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) $31,000
Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) $42,500
Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) $663,720
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) $23,500
Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA) $103,500
Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (D-MA) $231,994
Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) $133,000
Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH) $36,000
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) $144,500
Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) $174,500
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) $27,000
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) $201,250
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) $94,999
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) $168,750
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) $50,900
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) $99,500
Rep. John Larson (D-CT) $230,262
Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) $23,000
Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) $40,500
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) $34,700
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) $17,500
Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA) $24,500
Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) $311,678
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) $36,000
Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) $308,050
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) $124,500
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) $659,000
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) $770,786
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) $183,000
Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) $232,700
Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA) $31,604
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) $31,000
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-WV) $155,500
Rep. Sean Maloney (D-NY) $35,000
Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) $21,500
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) $86,000
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) $78,500
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) $18,000
Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) $670,100
Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) $20,500
Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ) $84,500
Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ) $18,000
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) $928,300
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) $408,000
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) $205,300
Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) $62,500
Rep. David Price (D-NC) $130,500
Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) $59,216
Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) $177,545
Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) $71,000
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) $25,500
Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) $350,000
Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) $26,000
Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) $19,000
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) $19,500
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) $83,500
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) $47,000
Rep. D. Ruppersberger (D-MD) $17,000
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) $34,000
Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) $156,000
Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA) $187,762
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) $31,500
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) $534,400
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) $24,000
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) $124,356
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) $123,500
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) $42,000
Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) $431,200
Rep. David Scott (D-GA) $56,500
Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) $62,000
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) $180,500
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) $477,678
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) $73,494
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) $115,000
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) $169,600
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) $141,236
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) $193,500
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) $18,000
Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) $34,000
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) $28,500
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) $226,429
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) $319,400
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) $323,500
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) $76,098
Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA) $37,500
Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) $33,500
Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) $29,500
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) $97,500
Rep. Juan Vargas (D-CA) $29,500
Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX) $89,500
Rep. Filemon Vela (D-TX) $27,100
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) $443,117
Rep. Debbie W. Schultz (D-FL) $184,957
Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) $55,000
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) $123,200
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) $232,750
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) $8500
Rep. Bonnie W. Coleman (D-NJ) $116,000
Unit IV will discuss: Making Pharmaceuticals a Public Utility