Obama’s PhRMA deal

By the Real News Network

The unlikely union of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America or PhRMA and the White House has many wondering about the true nature of this partnership. Especially taking into consideration the powerful lobby’s opposition to any kind of health care reform for years. The Real News spoke with Donna Smith, Community organizer for California Nurses Association, about drug industry’s possible impact on the final legislation.

2 Comments

  1. John McDermott on August 22, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    “Unlikely” union between the white house & phrma? It’s no secret that the two have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship that long predates, but also does indeed include, Obama’s presidency.



  2. Terry Brauer on August 23, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    The Administration is committed to enabling the imperfect to become the friend of the politically expedient.

    Americans should simply plead insanity.

    They enable with their complacency:

    *Talking heads like George Will to sell the notion that huge Pharma profits are needed to develop new drugs. This notion suggests that every other country in the world can buy medications less expensively by a factor of 100-500% … because Big Pharma is able to overchage Americans. It is a ludicrous proposition.

    *Professional confusers and hit squads to score with absurd propaganda like the ‘death panel’ and ‘socialized medicine’ distractions.

    *The White House to cover up its Amnesia, manifested by promises to change the way Washington does business, by celebrating deals with the very corrupt elements it was supposed to attack and defeat.

    *A lack of accountability by Congress and The White House for failing to expose and vilify the defrauders, wasters, and abusers … and indeed, proposing that they be rewarded for their misdeeds with an expanded role in a ‘reformed’ healthcare system.
    Clearly, Democratic Party political leadership is communicating that now that it is in power, it will sustain it by engaging in the same ethical shortfalls that the GOP utilized for 8 years to retain their power.

    Change We Can’t Believe In is proposed by Democrats, encouraged by Republicans, and ignored by the mainstream media. It is beyond credulity to accept the notion that thousands of Congressional and White House staff cannot unearth and expose what many of us know to be true — healthcare reform as it has been outlined is another scam, no different in nature than the Iraq invasion scam, bank bailout scam, and other profitable ventures for the cronies and friends of power brokers in Washington.