In A Huff! ::: Why Aren't Progressive Groups Protesting Obama's Back-Room Deal with Big Pharma? (HuffPo. lol.)

Today's NY Times front page reconfirmed the news that President Obama has made a back-room deal with the pharmaceutical industry to block any Congressional health care legislation that would allow Medicare or most other parts of the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry or would allow importation of cheaper drugs from Canada.

This is extraordinarily disturbing for several reasons:

• This is the only line in the sand that President Obama has drawn in setting forth what provisions are essential in a health reform bill in order for him to sign it instead of veto it. For example, Obama has refused to state that he won't sign a health reform bill without a robust public option. And indeed, the strongest version of the public option still on the table -- the one in the Committee Bill in the House -- is already fatally compromised: Its availability will be limited only to the individual insurance market and not to employers. According to the Congressional Budget Office, when it is fully implemented in 4 or 5 years, it will only insure a maximum of 10 million Americans (compared to over 35 million for Blue Cross) and will have no impact on bringing down health care costs.

• Such backroom deals with special interests and lobbyists are in direct conflict with Obama's campaign promises to change the way Washington does business. The deal was struck with Billy Tauzin, the pharmaceutical industry's chief lobbyist. For those who don't remember, Tauzin is the flamboyant former Democratic turned Republican Congressman from Louisiana who chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the same Committee now chaired by Henry Waxman, which is writing the House version of health care reform. Even as Tauzin was drafting the Medicare Drug bill -- which banned Medicare from negotiating lower prices with drug companies -- he was secretly negotiating a 2 million dollar a year job as the pharmaceutical industry's chief lobbyist.

• The ban on Medicare negotiating lower drug prices has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars in higher drug costs and made the drug companies tens of billions of dollars at taxpayer expense, helping to undermine the financial viability of Medicare. According to the Medicare Trustees, the cost to the taxpayers of this provision will be $8.7 trillion over the next 75 years. That averages out to $116 billion a year, which alone would more than pay for the entire 10-year $1 trillion dollar estimated cost of Obama's Health Care reform, without raising taxes. In return for Obama agreeing with Big Pharma to continue this ban, Big Pharma has made unenforceable promises to cut federal drug costs by an aggregate of $80 billion over 10 years (i.e., $8 billion a year, barely a rounding error in the overall cost of health reform).

• Such deals are the epitome of what's wrong with Washington that candidate Obama criticized and President Obama now seems to embrace. Even as Obama is making such backroom deals with powerful special interests, he's telling progressives to back off on criticizing Blue Dog Democrats who want to undermine meaningful health care reform.

More disappointment here:
Miles Mogulescu: Why Aren't Progressive Groups Protesting Obama's Back-Room Deal with Big Pharma?