Letterman didn't pay hush money. Neither should Obama-By Robert Reich

Letterman didn't pay hush money. Neither should Obama

Letterman refused to pay his alleged blackmailer. Obama should say no to Big Pharma, the insurers and the AMA

By Robert Reich

Oct. 19, 2009 | Last January, as I understand it, the White House promised Big Pharma, big insurance, and the American Medical Association the moral equivalent of what Joel Halderman allegedly demanded of David Letterman: hush money. The groups agreed to stay silent or even be supportive of healthcare reform, as long as they were paid off.

But now that it's time to collect, the bill is larger than the White House expected, and it's going to fall like an avalanche on middle class Americans in coming years. That could mean an ugly 2012 election (read Sarah Palin).

So the President has to do what Letterman did: Refuse to pay.

Big Pharma is on the road to getting its deal: not only 25 to 30 million more paying customers, but also a continued ban on Medicare using its bargaining clout to reduce drug prices, a bar on genetic drug manufacturers introducing similar biologic drugs until the originals have been on the market at least twelve years, and no public insurance option to negotiate low drug prices. (Big Pharma did agree to $80 billion of cost cuts over the next ten years, to be sure, but its hush money payoffs far exceeded that sum.)

more:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/10/19/obama_hush_money/

plain whores.

Democratic incumbents need to think again before passing a malignant "It's the best we can get right now" bill that will ravage the middle class and return our party to minority status.

:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

definitely scrap any appeasement to Big Pharma. If you're going to do what's best for most citizens of the United States rather than the big corporations and the very wealthy minority, just do it.

I hope they sneak it in on them at the end.