In deal with Big Pharma, Senate blocks drug reimportation

On Tuesday night the Senate took up an amendment that would have allowed for the reimportation of prescription drugs. It is estimated that consumers could save up to $38 million a year if drug reimportation was permitted. That is not small change. It is hard to see how anyone who professes to really care about the health of our citizens and is concerned about the cost of health care could oppose this amendment, but they did. The drug reimportation measure which required 60 votes to pass, failed by a vote of 51 in favor and 48 opposed.

I am not naïve and I understand how things work. Deals are often cut and people make compromises. Sometimes you must ally yourself with an evil policy in order to achieve a greater good. Sometimes you must deal with the devil. I am sure that that is how Democrats justify their opposition to drug reimportation. As a candidate, Obama promised to support drug reimportation but he changed his position in order to get the pharmaceutical industry’s support for the Democratic version of health care reform.

Americans pay much more for drugs than people in many other nations of the world. This is because in much of the world governments sets the prices that people may pay for any particular drugs. The drug companies can still sell drugs at the lower cost and make a profit at these lower prices because the marginal production cost of a particular pill may be pennies but the cost of the first pill may be millions. To win FDA approval for a new drug, a company must invest on average between 12 and 15 years and $800 million in research and development.

When governments in other countries dictate the price that their citizens may pay for a particular medicine then the people in countries without price controls pay the bulk of the cost of research and development. If all nations had drug price controls then funds for development of new drugs would dry up. I do not like the fact that the American consumer must pay the cost of the drug research and development that benefits the rest of the world. I do not like the fact that the American consumer is subsidizing socialized medical systems abroad.

Some would argue that the way to end this inequity is for the US to also adopt drug price controls. The problem with this is that new drug development would be limited by the amount of money that governments appropriate for this purpose. If we remove the market for advancements in health care, we will see less advancement. A way to force other countries to share the cost of research and development is to allow Americans to reimport drugs. If this was widely permitted, the drug companies would have to drive a harder bargain in negotiating prices in countries with price controls and those countries would eventually have to allow their prices to increase and thus their consumers would share in the cost of new drug development. Prices that people in other countries pay for drugs would increase and the price Americans pay would decrease.

If you are a progressive Democrat who thought you could get a health care public option which would eventually lead to a government take over of the health care system, then buying off the pharmaceutical industry by prohibiting drug reimportation may have been the price you were willing to pay. Now, however, it looks like the public option is off the table and no one should be honor-bound to continue the pharmaceutical deal. The deal should no longer be binding.

Some people who I otherwise admire and respect, such as McCain, Kyl, and Tennessee's Senator Bob Corker voted aginast this bill. I am sure the logic that those who voted against the bill are applying is that if they can keep the health care bill as bad as possible, it has a better chance of being defeated. I can't fault the logic but I think that there are times when one must to do the right thing rather than play politics. If they have other reasons why they voted against this bill I would like to hear them. I can't help but wonder if their is a relationship between campaign contributions and how one voted on this bill.

Some Democrats who I don't particularly like, such as Boxer, Durban, Dodd, and Reid surprised me and voted in favor of the amendment. In doing so they may have put at risk the deal with Big Pharma. I now have more respect for those Democrates.

To see how your senator voted, look at the list below.

Grouped by Home State
Alabama: Sessions (R-AL), Nay; Shelby (R-AL), Yea
Alaska: Begich (D-AK), Nay; Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Arizona: Kyl (R-AZ), Nay; McCain (R-AZ), Nay
Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea; Pryor (D-AR), Nay
California: Boxer (D-CA), Yea; Feinstein (D-CA), Nay
Colorado: Bennet (D-CO), Nay; Udall (D-CO), Yea
Connecticut: Dodd (D-CT), Yea; Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Delaware: Carper (D-DE), Yea; Kaufman (D-DE), Yea
Florida: LeMieux (R-FL), Yea; Nelson (D-FL), Nay
Georgia: Chambliss (R-GA), Yea; Isakson (R-GA), Yea
Hawaii: Akaka (D-HI), Yea; Inouye (D-HI), Nay
Idaho: Crapo (R-ID), Yea; Risch (R-ID), Yea
Illinois: Burris (D-IL), Yea; Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Indiana: Bayh (D-IN), Yea; Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Iowa: Grassley (R-IA), Nay; Harkin (D-IA), Nay
Kansas: Brownback (R-KS), Yea; Roberts (R-KS), Yea
Kentucky: Bunning (R-KY), Yea; McConnell (R-KY), Nay
Louisiana: Landrieu (D-LA), Yea; Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Maine: Collins (R-ME), Nay; Snowe (R-ME), Nay
Maryland: Cardin (D-MD), Yea; Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Massachusetts: Kerry (D-MA), Yea; Kirk (D-MA), Yea
Michigan: Levin (D-MI), Nay; Stabenow (D-MI), Nay
Minnesota: Franken (D-MN), Nay; Klobuchar (D-MN), Nay
Mississippi: Cochran (R-MS), Yea; Wicker (R-MS), Nay
Missouri: Bond (R-MO), Yea ; McCaskill (D-MO), Nay
Montana: Baucus (D-MT), Yea; Tester (D-MT), Yea
Nebraska: Johanns (R-NE), Nay; Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Nevada: Ensign (R-NV), Yea; Reid (D-NV), Yea
New Hampshire: Gregg (R-NH), Nay; Shaheen (D-NH), Nay
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea; Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
New Mexico: Bingaman (D-NM), Nay; Udall (D-NM), Nay
New York: Gillibrand (D-NY), Yea; Schumer (D-NY), Yea
North Carolina: Burr (R-NC), Yea; Hagan (D-NC), Yea
North Dakota: Conrad (D-ND), Nay; Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Ohio: Brown (D-OH), Nay; Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Oklahoma: Coburn (R-OK), Nay; Inhofe (R-OK), Yea
Oregon: Merkley (D-OR), Nay; Wyden (D-OR), Nay
Pennsylvania: Casey (D-PA), Yea; Specter (D-PA), Yea
Rhode Island: Reed (D-RI), Yea; Whitehouse (D-RI), Nay
South Carolina: DeMint (R-SC), Nay; Graham (R-SC), Nay
South Dakota: Johnson (D-SD), Yea; Thune (R-SD), Nay
Tennessee: Alexander (R-TN), Yea; Corker (R-TN), Nay
Texas: Cornyn (R-TX), Yea; Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
Utah: Bennett (R-UT), Yea; Hatch (R-UT), Nay
Vermont: Leahy (D-VT), Nay; Sanders (I-VT), Nay
Virginia: Warner (D-VA), Yea; Webb (D-VA), Nay
Washington: Cantwell (D-WA), Yea; Murray (D-WA), Yea
West Virginia: Byrd (D-WV), Not Voting; Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Wisconsin: Feingold (D-WI), Nay; Kohl (D-WI), Nay
Wyoming: Barrasso (R-WY), Yea; Enzi (R-WY), Yea

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Dear MoveOn member, Urge Cooper to oppose the Senate Health Care bill

To my progressive friends and especially to my siblings,

I know that politically we don't agree on much of anything and so you may be surprised that I am forwarding to you an email I received from MoveOn. I bet you are also surprised to find that I am a MoveOn member aren't you? One can become a member of MoveOn by just joining by email; you do not have to pay a membership fee. Trust me, I have never contributed to MoveOn but I am a member. See, the letter says "Dear MoveOn Member."

Some of you, I suspect, are also members of MoveOn yourself but maybe you missed this email. Some of the others of you are equally as "progressive" as MoveOn members but may never have gotten around to joining. Anyway, I am sure you respect the roll played by this fine progressive organization. I am sure you support their work on behalf of social justice and the downtrodden of the world. I did not want you to miss their most recent message on health care reform.

MoveOn is urging their members to call Representative Jim Cooper's office and urge him to oppose the Senate version of the health care bill. Their thinking is that if the House stands firm that the Senate will buckle and the final bill that passes will be a bill closer to the House bill which contains the public option. I am not a professional political strategist and I don't know if MoveOn is correct but this political strategizing seems like a game of high stakes poker and MoveOn must think they have the winning hand.

My view, and what I hear from the people I listen to, is that if the final bill contains a public option there will not be enough votes in the Senate to pass it. So, I want the progressives to urge the House to not buckle and to hold firm for the public option. I fear that if the House does capitulates to the Senate that the Senate bill that is before us will pass. While the Senate bill is not as bad as the House bill, it is still a bad bill. I want it to fail so we can start over and do real reform that includes tort reform, the ability to purchase insurance across state lines and that brings market forces to bear on health care cost. I want reform that empowers the individual, not the state.

While I would hate to get the House bill when we could have gotten the less bad Senate bill, I say roll the dice and go for broke. So, dear progressives please follow MoveOn. Please call Jim Cooper and urge him to oppose the Senate version of health care. Tell him to stand firm. In addition to making the health care bill more likely to be defeated, I suspect that if Cooper holds firm in support for the House bill instead of the Senate bill without the public option, he will be more susceptible to being defeated the next election.

If you remember, when voting for the House Bill, Cooper said he was only voting that way in order to move the debate forward and that he really did not support the public option. Cooper is a leader of the Blue Dogs and often talks conservative but always votes liberal. I have liked Cooper. He is obviously a smart man. He has a depth of knowledge about a lot of issues and probably understands more about the threat posed by this nations massive debt than anyone else in Congress. When he talks I find myself agreeing with him. The problem with Jim Cooper is he never votes the way he talks. He had me fooled for a long time. He still has a lot of people fooled and gets a lot of support from Republicans and conservative Democrats. Go ahead, put Cooper on the spot. I would like for Cooper to show his true colors. If he votes for a final bill with a public option, I suspect he will face tough Republican opposition next time he runs.

Don't trust me and take my advice on this; here are your marching orders from MoveON.

Dear MoveOn member,

The Senate health care bill is being gutted one piece at a time, and people are fed up. A new poll shows growing opposition to health care reform—from progressives angry at moves to drop the public option. Governor Howard Dean called the bill "the insurance companies' dream," while former insurance executive Wendell Potter said, "It absolutely is a big gift, a big bailout to the industry."1

The Senate, led by Joe Lieberman, has gone too far—and there's tremendous momentum to fight back. But some House conservatives are reportedly considering support for the weak Senate bill.2 Your representative, Jim Cooper, is a member of the conservative Blue Dog Caucus. Can you call Rep. Cooper right away and urge him to oppose the watered-down Senate bill? Make sure he knows that voters are outraged by the Senate's weak bill and want real health care reform with a strong, national public option.

After the Senate bill passes, leadership from both sides will meet to merge the two bills into one in what's known as a "conference committee." In theory, both sides will negotiate and pieces from each bill will be included in the final legislation, which then goes to President Obama. But pressure on leadership to pass the weakest bill or a near-unchanged version of the Senate bill will be intense—from conservatives like Joe Lieberman, and from those arguing that we can't to risk losing their votes. So to end up with a strong final bill, all House members need to stand strong in support of
their version of the bill and its key pieces like the public option.

The House bill is, in nearly every way, stronger than what's in the Senate. It
would cover 36 million Americans, create real competition with a national public option, provide stronger subsidies for low income Americans, hold insurance companies accountable with real regulations, and much more. Of course, it also contains the awful anti-choice "Stupak" provision, which is just another reason we need strong progressive voices leading up to conference.

Can you call Rep. Cooper today and tell him that the Senate bill is unacceptable? Make sure he knows that you're fed up with the gutting of the Senate health care bill and want real reform with a strong, national public option.

Here's where to call:

Representative Jim Cooper
Phone: 202-225-4311

Then, let us know how it went by clicking here:
http://pol.moveon.org/call?tg=FHTN_05&cp_id=1213&id=18333-15255949-5mMAO6x&t=4
Thanks for all you do.
–Kat, Stephen, Ilyse, Lenore, and the rest of the team

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Howard Dean Is Right, This Is Not Health Care Reform

From The Heritage Foundation

President Barack Obama yesterday hosted yet another health care pep rally to shore up liberal support for his health care bill. Obama’s “rally” followed Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) latest capitulation to Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) health care demands, whereby Reid removed a Medicare expansion that Lieberman had initially supported. From the Roosevelt Room, Obama claimed Democrats were “on the precipice of an achievement that’s eluded congresses and presidents for generations.” But hours later, former Governor and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told Vermont National Public Radio:

This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. And, honestly, the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill and go back to the House … You have the vast majority of Americans want the choices, they want real choices. They don’t have them in this bill. This is not health care reform and it’s not close to health care reform.

Later on MSNBC’s Countdown, Dean further responded to President Obama’s claims that “You talk to every healthcare economist out there and they will tell you that whatever ideas are — whatever ideas exist in terms of bending the cost curve and starting to reduce costs for families, businesses and government, those elements are in this bill.” Dean told guest host Lawrence O’Donnell: “There is no cost control of any substance. … You’re going to be forced to buy health insurance from a company that is going to take on average of 27% of your money … and there is no choice about that. If you don’t buy that insurance you are going to get a fine.”

The President’s own Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS) agrees with Dean and contradicts Obama. CMMS found that the Senate bill, instead of bending the cost curve down, actually drives health care costs up, adding $234 billion to national health expenditures. (link) But the President’s fantastic claims did not end there. Obama then asserted: “And in terms of deficits — because we keep on hearing these ads about how this is going to add to the deficit — the CBO has said that this is a deficit reduction, not a deficit increase. So all the scare tactics out there, all the ads that are out there are simply inaccurate.”

But the President leaves out this all important caveat in the CBO’s report: “In the subsequent decade, the collective effect of its provisions would probably be small reductions in federal budget deficits if all of the provisions continued to be fully implemented.” But nobody believes that all of the provisions in the bill will be fully implemented. For example, the Senate bill includes a 20% cut in the payments Medicare sets for doctors. Nobody believes these cuts will be allowed to happen. By changing just that provision, Obamacare ends up adding $196 billion to the deficit in the first 10 years and $765 billion in the second decade.

The American people already do not trust President Obama’s health care claims. Just today, the Washington Post released a poll finding that 51% of adults oppose Obamacare, with 40% in strong opposition. Meanwhile only 44% support the bill with only 25% feeling strongly about it. Digging deeper we find that 66% of Americans believe Obamacare will increase the federal budget deficit, 53% believe it will cause their own health care to cost more, 55% believe it will increase the country’s health care costs overall, and 50% believe it will not improve their quality of care. These findings echo an earlier CNN poll which found that 61% of Americans opposed Obamacare, with 79% believing it would add to the deficit and 85% believing it would raise their taxes.

It has become obvious to any American following the debate that President Obama has adopted a get-a-deal-at-any-cost mentality that puts a higher priority on the political victory of passing any bill over the policy substance of what is actually in the bill and how it would effect the American people. As Dean told O’Donnell last night: “You can’t vote for a bill like this in good conscience. … It costs too much money. It isn’t health care reform. It isn’t even insurance reform.”

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Howard Dean: Vote no on Senate Bill

"The best thing to do with it now is kill the bill"

Former Governor, DNC Chairman, and medical doctor Howard Dean wants the Senate Health Care Bill scrapped.

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The Health Care Hail Mary Pass

I do not know a single person who is opposed to health care reform. The health care system needs reformed. We need real reform however, not this bill that is before us. We need tort reform, we need the ability to purchase insurance across state lines, we need to let individuals own their own insurance plan, we need health savings accounts; we do not need this monstrosity which will raise insurance premiums for many Americans and bankrupt Medicare. Slashing funding for Medicare while putting million more on the Medicare rolls? What kind of logic is that? I have a hard time believing that anyone really believes that what is before us is a good bill. It appears the Democrats want to pass something-anything, just so they can say they "reformed" health care.

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Liberty on the Rocks this Thursday

Date: Thursday, December 17, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: Mafiaoza's
Street: 2400 12th Avenue South
City/Town: Nashville, TN

A splendid mix of grass roots activism, libations, and good conversation. We are a group of citizens who endeavor to limit the reach of government into our personal lives, to ensure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Join us for a meeting of the minds to discuss ways we can further our cause of liberty.

No prayer, no pledge, no treasurers report, no speaker, no program. Just a bunch conservatives and libertarians who get together to argue, network, share and drink. Happy hour prices and O'devours on the house. These events are a lot of fun.

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On Folding Underwear by Ouida Williams

I don’t know why anyone should care if I don’t fold my underwear.
Now I’ll roll up my socks
And put ‘em in a box
But I’m not gonna fold my underwear.

Now you really don’t have to make you bed,
Just plump up the pillows
And spread up the spread
Yon really don’t have to make up your bed.

You really don’t have to dust every day,
Just pick up the papers
And put things away.
You really don’t have to dust every day.

Now I’ll put up the dishes and take out the trash
And sweep the kitchen
But here’s a flash
I’m not gonna fold my underwear.

And I’ll put up the pans and stack up the lids
The way Momma taught us
When we were just kids
But Mama’s not here and I just don’t care.

And I’m not gonna fold my underwear.

Ouida Williams is my mother. This poem was published in New Millennium Writings, a literary journal edited by my brother Don Williams.

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What should the temperature be?

by Representative John Linder (R-GA)

For the last several years, when people have instructed me that human activity was causing a dangerous increase in global temperatures, my response has been, "Then tell me, what should the temperature be?" Should it be the temperatures that the planet experienced 1,000 years ago during which Greenland was settled as a farming community and during which wine grapes were grown in Scotland? Should it be the temperatures of 300 years ago when the Little Ice Age ended the inhabitation of Greenland and the Thames iced over? Should it be the temperatures of 829 A.D. when the Nile River froze? No response!

We are told, based on computer models, that human beings burning fossil fuels, and exhaling, are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and that this, in turn, is trapping heat and is responsible for the modest temperature increase between 1976 and 1998. The conclusion is that we must alter our entire lifestyles to avoid a planetary catastrophe.

For computer models to be accurate, inputs must include all of the factors that can impact climate. Knowing this, as well as believing it is likely that the majority of factors that do impact climate are yet unknown, how can we trust the models?

To begin with, CO2 is not driving temperature, as is being claimed for today's warmth. We know from cores taken from the Vostok glacier in Antarctica that while CO2 and temperatures do increase and decrease in consonance; the temperature changes precede the CO2 changes by about 1,000 years.

We currently have about 388 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere by volume. That is at the lower end of the historical comfort scale. The most fertile time that our planet has ever seen was during the Cambrian Period about 542 million years ago. In a very short period of time all of multicellular life that has ever existed was deposited in the fossil evidence. That occurred because the planet was warm. The CO2 level in the atmosphere was 20 times higher than it is today. The entire planet was green with growth and oxygen levels were unusually high.

Likewise, during the period of dinosaur dominance, CO2 levels were 5 times higher than today, enabling the planet to grow enough greenery to keep them alive.

Even today, the most diverse part of our planet in both plant and animal life is around the Equator -- the warmest area of the globe.

We are told that the calving of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula is proof that the world's largest ice pack, which comprises about 90% of the globe's ice, is melting. The Antarctic Peninsula constitutes 2% of the continent. The other 98% of the continent has been growing by about 27 gigatons of ice per year. This comes not from computer models, but from 30 years of satellite measurements. Those same empirical observations show that the sea ice surrounding Antarctica is at a record high extent.

What's more, every computer model shows that greenhouse warming is associated with a "hot spot" located about 4 to 6 miles above the Equator. We have been measuring that spot for 50 years with instruments. It doesn't exist. Thus, whatever warming we see is unlikely to be due to the greenhouse effect as the models explain it.

We are told that the melting of Arctic ice is endangering the future of polar bears. There were 5,000 polar bears 50 years ago. There are 25,000 today. This does not seem like extinction to me. Additionally, Captain Roald Amundsen of Norway explored that entire region in 1905 -- sailing through the North-West Passage -- in a sailboat! Today, there is usually ice blocking his route.

In his movie An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore says that sea levels will rise by 20 feet in the next century, putting much of the world's oceanfront land and islands at risk. Real science tells us that the last glaciation ended about 11,000 years ago. Oceans have risen since then by about 4 feet per century. In the 20th century, sea levels rose by about 8 inches. Indeed, Dr. Nils-Axel Moerner from the University of Stockholm, who has written 520 peer reviewed articles on sea levels and is considered a world authority, recently declared that sea levels have been unchanged for the last 3 years.

Years ago Dr. Richard Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology at MIT, theorized that higher temperatures over the equator caused the cirrus clouds to disappear and heat was vented up over the atmosphere. That theory is now proven to be a fact and has been quantified by NASA. It begins when the surface temperature of the ocean exceeds 28 degrees centigrade. This fact is not considered on the computer models.

This is what this whole discussion comes down to. In science only two conditions obtain. One is theory and the other is fact. The entire notion of human caused global warming is a theory based on computer models. None of it has been proven through rigorous empirical observation to be a fact.

On December 7, 2009, President Obama will send a delegation to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the U.N. Climate Conference. So what exactly is the goal of this conference? A few months ago Al Gore explained the ultimate goal: Global Governance. If the climate alarmists get their way, the U.S. economy would be subject to the whims of a U.N.-led climate government, unaccountable to American taxpayers, but most certainly using American taxpayer funds to operate. Since so many countries are happy to blame the U.S. for the vast majority of what they amusingly claim is a catastrophic slide into global devastation, I am sure that a new U.N. Climate Government will be all too eager to call on the American taxpayer to foot the bill. In fact, the 200-page draft document says just that. We will be billed by an un-elected bureaucracy for our "climate debt." And we will yield our sovereignty to international law.

I noted earlier that this has been a discussion. Unfortunately, it has not been a debate. The alarmists refuse to debate. They say that the science is settled. Nonsense! There is no such thing as settled scientific theory. Only settled scientists. If Al Gore believes his science is settled, he should agree to debate and prove the skeptics wrong. Yet he has been running from debate for years.

To those who ask who would be hurt if we were wrong about CO2 and reduced the amount in the atmosphere, I say only the 1.6 billion most vulnerable people in the world. They are desperate for more CO2 so they can grow a plant to eat. Their lives are brutal and short. They desperately need what we have enjoyed over the last 100 years.

Over the last 2 million years this planet has experienced about 20 glaciations. They last about 100,000 years interrupted by warming periods of about 10,000 years. It has been about 11,000 years since the last glaciation ended. During the last century we saw one of the longest periods of high solar activity since the last glaciation. Temperatures rose. We have seen less sun activity in the last 11 years than we have seen for a very long time. The temperature has also been steady or declining for 11 years. (By the way, not one of the computer models, which so confidently predict what will happen in 100 years, predicted that cooling.) Let us pray that this is not signaling the next glaciation; one that actually kills people.

There is no need for any climate treaty at Copenhagen. It is time to disband the U.N.'s self-serving and serially dishonest climate panel. Officially-sponsored environmental extremism is a danger to our national security.

Representative John Linder (R-GA) sits on the House Ways and Means Committee which has jurisdiction over the Waxman-Markey bill, jurisdiction over the Boxer-Kerry bill should it pass in the Senate, and authority over all carbon taxes generally.

Comment: Climate change is undeniable. Climate has never been constant. I do not know if global warming is occurring and if it is, I do not know if it is man-made. What I do know is that I no longer trust the "science" of global warming. Given the revelations of the Climategate deception, the view of the sceptics need to be considered and the theory of global warming needs to be subjected to a rigorous scientific reevaluation. Inconvenient facts that do not support a theory should not be ignored.

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More Climategate 'toons

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