Pharmaquiddick: Obama's Drug Deal Gone Bad

Assume that the deal itself is legal. (I don't know if it is.) Assume that Obama sought a deal of some kind, and he's permitted to do so, and this is the "best deal for the American people" he could get.

Let's assume that.

But let's note these problems:

1. The President is not allowed to enter into secret deals with corporations. Deal, perhaps. Deal secretly? No.

2. They've lied about it. They did not merely withhold information about the deal; they actively lied to the public -- in agreement with each other; both parties, after all, have to agree to lie before one goes forward in the lie -- about the deal.

3. Big Pharma has also agreed to an utterly-corrupt $150 million ad buy to prop up Obama's plan -- which is of course the same as contributing to his election war chest. And John McCain only spent $126 million on his campaign, for comparison.

4. Obama keeps lying to the public, claiming he can find additional "savings" in drug spending, when in fact he as already promised to seek not a penny more in savings from Pharma. He needs to contrive fakey-pretend methods of savings, in order to explain why the CBO is wrong, and he keeps coming back to vague savings he'll get from drug-makers. This is a lie. The exact amount of savings has been agreed to and there is not another dollar coming. (Cf. his frequent statements that he's already gotten $80 billion out of pharma, so who knows how much more in savings he'll find?)

5. Obama promised over and over these "negotiations" would be not only transparent, they'd be on CSPAN; he promised that anyone "carrying water" for the drug companies (a Congressman, he suggests) would be shamed. Check out this vid of Obama's many promises to make his negotiations transparent and "on CSPAN:"

On CSPAN? Even the White House spokesman doesn't seem to know about them.

And those problems stand even if we assume that all of the other stuff is perfectly legal. Which I'm not at all certain of.

Thanks to Andrew's Dad for Point 5; video compiled by Naked Emperor News.

Credit: "Pharmaquiddick" thanks to kefka.

posted by Ace at 05:09 PM

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