Bernie Sanders introduced a very simple symbolic amendment Wednesday night, urging the federal government to allow Americans to purchase pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, where they are considerably cheaper. Such unrestricted drug importation is currently prohibited by law.
The policy has widespread support among Americans: one Kaiser poll taken in 2015 found that 72 percent of Americans are in favor of allowing for importation. President-elect Donald Trump also campaigned on a promise to allow for importation.
The Senate voted down the amendment 52-46, with two senators not voting. Unusually, the vote was not purely along party lines: 13 Republicans joined Sanders and a majority of Democrats in supporting the amendment, while 13 Democrats and a majority of Republicans opposed it.
One of those Democrats was New Jersey’s Cory Booker, who is considered a rising star in the party and a possible 2020 presidential contender.
In a statement to the media after the vote, Booker’s office said he supports the importation of prescription drugs but that “any plan to allow the importation of prescription medications should also include consumer protections that ensure foreign drugs meet American safety standards. I opposed an amendment put forward last night that didn’t meet this test.”
This argument is the same one offered by the pharmaceutical industry. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which lobbies against importation, maintains that it opposes importation because “foreign governments will not ensure that prescription drugs entering the U.S. from abroad are safe and effective.”
The safety excuse has long been a refuge for policymakers who don’t want to assist Americans struggling with prescription drug costs. Bills to legalize importation passed in 2000 and 2007, but expired after the Clinton and Bush administrations refused to certify that it would be safe. The Obama administration also cited safety concerns when opposing an importation measure in the Affordable Care Act.
A second amendment Wednesday, authored by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, would have allowed importation pending a safety certification, just like the previous laws passed on the subject. It also failed. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., used that amendment to claim on Twitter that he voted “to lower drug prices through importation from Canada,” and Booker referred to the Wyden amendment in his statement as well. This is a well-worn tactic from opponents of importation to mislead their constituents, as they know such certification will never occur.
The safety excuse is mostly a chimera, as most of the drugs that would be imported from Canada were originally manufactured in the United States; they’re just cheaper there, because the Canadian government uses a review board and price negotiation to make drugs more affordable.
“My first response to that is show me the dead Canadians. Where are the dead Canadians?” former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, once asked during his own push to allow for importation.
Democrats blocked importation from becoming part of the Affordable Care Act in 2009, with over 30 votes in opposition, because they feared it would have pushed the pharmaceutical industry to oppose the underlying legislation. They also voted in large numbers to oppose importation as part of an FDA bill in 2012.
Booker and some of his Democratic colleagues who opposed the Sanders amendment are longtime friends of the drug industry. As MapLight data shows, Booker has received more pharmaceutical manufacturing cash over the past six years than any other Democratic senator: $267,338. In addition, significant numbers of pharmaceutical and biotech firms reside in Booker’s home state of New Jersey. Other Democrats receiving six-figure donations from the industry, like Casey, Patty Murray, and Michael Bennet, opposed the amendment.
Top photo: Booker at a Senate Housing, Transportation, and Community Development Subcommittee meeting on July 30, 2014, in Washington, D.C.
turncoat
D.C. has always been swarming with sluts like Booker who gladly take “payoffs” from Lobbies to pad their coffers. Over 100 Democrats in both the House and Senate have taken money in similar fashion from Islamic groups. One can watch THE ENEMIES WITHIN (Amazon Videos/Documentaries or fmovies.se/movies/documentaies) and get a good handle on what is really going on. I’m not so sure that “draining the swamp” means a whole lot but, I hope it does.
” While debate is encouraged, name-calling is not. Commenters should strive to attack the substance of arguments, rather than the person who is making them.”
???????
“Michael H.
January 16 2017, 7:25 p.m.
Bought off by the big pharmaceutical companies…simple as that.”
“Terry Helton
January 16 2017, 3:26 p.m.
Goes to show that we need term limits and a new Congress up and down the line.”
“Vic Perry ? Terry Helton
January 18 2017, 2:20 a.m.
term limits are stupid, “replace everybody” is even stupider”
https://humanrightsdilettante.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/idolizing-politicians-is-dangerous/
Please do your research. The bill they voted against would NOT have made it legal to import drugs from Canada. It was a vote to allow the Republican leader of the Senate budget committee to create a slush fund under the NAME of importing such drugs. But the ONE SENTENCE bill provided zero oversight on his ability to do so and gave no direction on how that money could be used. Here’s the entire bill:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/klobuchar-amendment?inline=file
Bought off by the big pharmaceutical companies…simple as that.
Goes to show that we need term limits and a new Congress up and down the line.
term limits are stupid, “replace everybody” is even stupider.
aaaaand Vic Perry goes deep diving for the win, with a resounding approval of the banksters, the surveilllance state, and a blackmailed, corrupt congress.
Live Canadian here. It would be nice for us if you’d import our stuff, but honestly, why don’t you import our IDEA of a review board and negotiations?
“but honestly, why don’t you import our IDEA of a review board and negotiations?”
Because the ones in charge of our Government are getting paid millions of dollars by the pharmaceutical industry NOT to take such steps.
You Canadians don’t get it do you? We’re not actually a democracy, nor does our government work with the citizenry’s best interest in mind.
We’re a plutocracy with a great PR machine.
Cory Booker and bottom feeders like him are only there (In Congress) to talk pretty and block legislation in case that legislation somehow finds a way of getting passed the guard dogs in Congress (Republicans).
Cory Booker will make fantastic speeches against the cartoonish bigotry of obvious buffoons like Jeff Sessions, and he will tout himself as a champion of average Americans of every race and creed, but he will vote like the Corporatist goon that he is when it comes to legislation which brings any economic relief to the middle and lower classes, or even hints at financial redistribution.
I may be incorrect but, I believe that is Trump’s intent. We’ll see. I do know that is his intent re: Military Contracts. He showed his hand when he commented on the costs of the new fighter plane.
it appears most people aren’t aware that bi partisan means both parties have strategic whores who are bought and paid for. isn’t booker the asshole who shoveled snow to “help the folks” back in jersey a few years back. guess he doesn’t feel lower medicine costs would help those “folks” who can’t shovel their own snow..you know the older generation like me. and “ya know” that Canadian medicine isn’t safe (like OxyContin and fentanyl).
if anyone thought business as usual Obama was bad just hold on for the trump wihte house concessions on the front lawn. maybe we could rename it trump house. bottom the same thieves who prospered from war and laisse faire business regulation will skyrocket in trumpdom.
we wont supply the drug problem in merica, go to mexico or cuba if you want free drugs, scumbags
What do you know? Assholes in Canada too. Who knew?
Maybe you should look up who else has received contributions from the pharmaceutical industry. sanders is actually 3rd highest, way higher than Cory Booker
Yet he sponsored the bill.
I sent Booker and Menendez emails on this vote.
Bottom line, I told both of them that I will not be voting for them again, ever.
Furthermore, if, when their current terms expire, either of them run again for the US Senate and win the nomination of the Democratic Part, I will do something I have never done in my voting life going back to 1984; I will vote Republican.
I have had enough of this Republican-Lite fraud. If I am going to get Republican-like vote(s) from the US Senator(s) from New Jersey, it might as well be the real thing.
I am dead fucking serious.
Well that is fucking brilliant because you know who gets more money from the pharmaceutical industry than Cory Booker? Take a wild guess? BERNIE SANDERS that’s who? Out of 100 senators Cory Booker isn’t even in the TOP 20 when it comes to BIG PHARMA donations. They’re all Republicans and Bernie.
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=H04&cycle=2016&recipdetail=S&mem=Y&sortorder=U
wow what bullshit sophistry .
Blame Bernie by saying he takes $$ from pharma
all the while avoiding the reality that Bernie brought forth the legislation in the first place.
Guilt by mis-direction and lies, good move
Marcy, thank you so much for this. I makes me so upset when people assume malice on the part of elected officials (especially ones who have, time and again, proven that their hearts and minds are in the right place) simply because it fits their exclusionary and cynical view of politics. Cory Booker isn’t in the pocket of Big Pharma any more than Bernie Sanders or Amy Klobachar are.
You can vote Republican if you want to Tony, but be aware that you’re killing the possibility of any of your pet issues seeing the light of day. You’re cutting off your nose to spite your face.
but do you want drugs untested and may not work? or are you ok with them sending anything?
what about fake drugs that come from this country?
whose responsible for that? or are you will to just take your chances
with your family? children? why cant they meet min standards?
total bullshit
Canada is not some third world county
At this point I suspect oversight in Canada is WAY better than in the US.
The Canadian drugs are just as safe or safer than our US drugs so don’t give me that song and dance about safety. For your information, 80 percent of the drug ingredients and 40 percent of the USA drugs are manufactured in India and China and the FDA hasn’t kept up with the inspections of those offshore drugs so you have more to worry about with US drugs. So if you’re going to get all excited about minimum standards you need to start in the US.
A large portion of those drugs are made here in the states and you are pathetic.
Whory Cory. He’s also a big stooge of Investment Banksters. Two for one with Cory.
Cory Booker doesn’t get all that much money from Commercial Banks or the Pharmaceuticals Industry. Bernie Sanders actually gets more from BOTH sectors (believe it or not, Bernie is one of the highest recipients of commercial banking/investment banking dollars: https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=F03&cycle=2016&recipdetail=M&sortorder=U).
Is it so hard to believe that he might just not like the amendment?
David DePriest,
I like how you mixed in investment banks with commercial banks to tar Sanders. With regard to commercial banking lobby donations he’s one of the top Senate recipients. He’s also one of the top Senate recipients when it comes to credit union lobby donations.
Now, there’s no actual investment banking sector within the FIRE industry, so let’s just go through all the categories and we’ll see where it is. It must be here somewhere, since Sanders is a huge pig who is feeding at the trough of the investment banking industry, right? Right. So, let’s take a look:
Hedge Funds: – Hmm….I don’t see him on the list. https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=F2700&cycle=2016&recipdetail=S&mem=Y&sortorder=U
Finance/Credit Companies: Hmm…I don’t see him on this list either https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=F06++
Private Equity & Investment Firms: Hmm…I don’t see him on the list either! Is this right? https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.phpind=F2600&cycle=2016&recipdetail=S&mem=Y&sortorder=U
Insurance: WTF? Sanders isn’t here in the top 20 senators again? https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=F09&cycle=2016&recipdetail=S&mem=Y&sortorder=U
Securities: Surprise, surprise, surprise…FML! He’s not here either!!! https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=F07&cycle=2016&recipdetail=S&mem=Y&sortorder=U
You lied about Sanders when it come to Investment Banking dollars. There’s not even a record of it. That’s absolutely sickening that you’re trying to manufacture the statistics against Sanders knowingly while having nothing to back it up. You’re just doing character assassination and disinforming here.
If you have a membership at this site, I hope they revoke it.
Donald Trump has excoriated high drug prices. Thirteen Dems just gave him props. Sad. Very sad.
Something is not right here. Why vote for Klobuchar and against Sanders? Because one was Canada only the other was Canada and other countries. So what is the larger game?
The subtitle reading “The measure introduced by Bernie Sanders would’ve passed without Democratic defections” is incorrect. Amendments to bills require 60 votes.
Democrats selected ‘health care’ over jobs. And it looks like they’re getting it.
Which is good, because Democrats understand they don’t need work, but they need services.
Booker the crooker.
Have to wonder how much he received from the pharmaceutical industry, both above and below the table.
I suggest a law that allows unlimited importation of medications from any nation showing both longer lifespan and lower infant mortality if the medication is legally offered for sale and is approved by the national regulator in that nation. I see no other reason to filter. I also think it would be interesting if a US state registered and licensed or opens a government owned pharmacy that imports and sells such medications.
?? As a Canadian senior citizen, I suspect we are more rigorous in safety testing pharmaceuticals compared to the USA… and yeah most of what we have was PRICE negotiated with American companies?Booker has shot himself in the foot in betraying Bernie and consumers ??
This tweet contains the names and contact numbers for the Dem senators that voted against this bill. Apparently, their phone lines have been getting slammed:
https://twitter.com/jimdiljes/status/820466121258242054
I called them and Tweeted to a lot of them. If we want the Dems to work for us we need to demand it. While we’re at it, out of all 100 senators, Bernie Sanders received the 3rd most money from the pharmaceutical industry during 2015-2016. Cory Booker isn’t even in the top 20. Also let’s please give Cory Booker credit for being THE FIRST SITTING SENATOR TO TESTIFY AGAINST SOMEONE IN A CONFIRMATION HEARING! Not to mention he has also been huge on criminal justice reform and openly supports a woman’s right to choose and funding Planned Parenthood and numerous civil rights issues. So the idea that because we disagree with him on this vote, it means he doesn’t pass the purity test makes me wonder who in this country does. Look at all the money that Bernie Sanders has taken from the NRA! In addition to the money he has taken from the pharmaceutical industry. But it doesn’t mean we should be ready to toss him out of office. This is why the Democrats lose because we on the left, can’t come together! https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=H04&cycle=2016&recipdetail=S&mem=Y&sortorder=U
Your data is not accurate Marcy. You’re only looking at the 2015-2016 cycle. If you go back one cycle, 2012-2014, you’ll see that Booker is actually number 2 on the list with $329,000 in that cycle, which I think it’s impressive considering that he joined the Senate only in 2013. Previously, he was also mayor of Newark and god knows how much money and favors he traded with the pharma industry.
And yes, you’re right that Bernie took some money from the pharma industry in the last couple of years, but that didn’t stop him from sponsoring the bill.
Please open your eyes, and realize that both parties are playing with all of you.
There are any number of ways to ensure safety and effectiveness, but that is not what all this is all about.
Opening American markets to some foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers would have dramatic effects on prices. Big pharma has used every tactic in the book to minimize competition and maximize profits, including extended patent rights, lawsuits, fixed combinations of drugs, “bent” molecules, new dosage forms, analogs, big donations to politicians, and purposefully misleading advertising.
This has made pharmaceutical companies hugely profitable and American drug prices twice that of Europe.
good news?
Drugs are not required for robots…
Big Pharma Profits before welfare of American voters!
Just shows you who runs the government !
Wow.
How Great It Is that BLACK FOLK get to be in CONGRESS to do what the WHITE FOLK tell them to do. Why, its like back in to good old plantation days! … SAME WITH WOMEN like Nancy Pelosi, the WORST minority leader and Speaker in Democrats’ history and they can’t get rid of her carcass; she does what the white men running the dominant male rape culture tell her to do. Like Hillary. And then there is the outright Zionist backer of Israeli Apartheid and empire Chuck Schumer, the first Jew to be Senate minority leader, already a whore of the banking industrial complex and the fossil fuels industrial complex as well, and he really looks out for that working class who voted for Donald Trump, now don’t he? Absent a Sanders makeover or a Hard Left takeover, the Democratic Party is a stinking, rotting corpse.
I think that you can expand that to both parties, and if one to measure the nation against founding ideals, it also.
This is garbage. The Democrats are showing themselves now to be pretty effective at challenging the GOP (just look at how they dispatched that attempt to kill the Ethics office, or how they dispatched Monica Crowley). They’re not perfect, but it’s better than anyone expected. Additionally, I think it’s stupid to jettison at least 40% of the party for being moderate. The Democratic Party shouldn’t be held captive by one part of it. There should be enough room in the party for moderate Democrats like Schumer and Clinton, liberals like Booker, Warren, and Sanders, and even blue dogs like Heidtkamp and Tester. So long as they share the commitment to equality, justice, and kindness, they should have a place in the Democratic Party.
Well it looks like Booker will be organizing a bid for 2020 with those actions.
Hypocrite! as are most Democrats.
Before vilifying Booker, please get the WHOLE story! The reason Sen. Booker and other Dems voted against this measure was because the GOP added language to *DE-FUND* the ACA! And after the measure was voted down, GOP sent out a bunch of these news items to make those Dems look bad.
Thank u. Facts matter.
Since you are the Only person to note that in dozens of articles, a reference please.
The first thing that we are going to do is ban the advertisement of all kinds of drugs and medicines. There is no need to advertise prescription drugs, or go and suggest to the doctor to prescribe them unnecessarily. The only exception would be medical journals where the readership is only doctors and pharmacists for the most part.
If any drug or medicine is advertised, then the drug manufacturer will immediately forfeit any intellectual property claim and allow the import of matching generic drugs that cost a fraction of the price at which they sell their drugs.
I had stopped watching for two reasons. One is, of course, I have lost patience waiting for them to tell some truth. The second is the constant barrage of all kinds of medicines that I don’t need, but that my life would be futile if I didn’t consume them.
The main reason why the Hillary supporters are so upset is because Trump did not take a penny from the dishonest pharmaceutical companies, and so we are no longer obliged to support their nefarious practices. Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton were their preferred candidates, but the Lord has listened to our prayers and got rid of them before they could prolong this Obamacurse.
It’s shameful that they use the excuse over and over again about “safety” when all they’re doing is protecting their big donors…boot them out – including my Senators Murray and Cantwell…just saying.
Hopefully it isn’t necessary to elaborate extensively on the ridiculousness of the “safety” argument. The drugs are apparently good enough for Canadians, and most of them are shipped directly from the U.S. anyway, so in many cases, it would be a matter of RE-importing rather than simply “importing”.
But let’s ASSUME there’s a risk involved and examine the choices for a person in the U.S. who has trouble paying for prescription drugs. Under the current system, their options are:
A. Forego taking the prescription drugs entirely.
B. Cut back on heat, food and other essentials to buy expensive medications.
Repealing the ban would provide an additional option.
C. Take the much less expensive imported versions and accept the “risk” involved.
Even if you accept Booker’s bullshit “safety” argument, shouldn’t the individual consumer have the freedom to make their own decision weighing the risk vs. reward of the imported medication?
The people who think that free trade is bad are now the same people who think that importing drugs from Canada is good. The common ground between Democrats and Republicans here is hypocrisy.
Exactly! which just proves there is little to NO difference between the either Party
Except your argument doesn’t hold because the drugs Canadians use are largely made in the United States.
So you’re saying that both Democrats and Republicans aren’t hypocrites?
NJerseyans cannot count on Booker, cannot count on Menendez. BOTH have the monied interests in their POCKETS and are not in any way dedicated to what is good for the PEOPLE of NJ. Do not believe anything either of them says. In one day Menendez voted NO to a Bill, and sent out emails telling us, 24hours later, YES to the same Bill in amended version. But no email to us, telling us of THAT change in Vote. LIARS – CHEATS – MONEY is all they know. People do not matter.
I hadn’t realized before that Booker was stupid enough to put corporate profits above people. The “safety” issue is transparent hogwash. Now it’s clear on which side his toast is buttered.
Pharma only owns part of him. Wall Street owns the rest. Booker will say great things smoothly, and look the part. But he’s a hustler on the make.
A Chimera indeed!
Re: “The safety excuse is mostly a chimera, as most of the drugs that would be imported from Canada were originally manufactured in the United States; they’re just cheaper there, because the Canadian government uses a review board and price negotiation to make drugs more affordable.”
I think the authors perhaps in another follow up article could elaborate more on this point by examining and contrasting the policy differences between the U.S. and Canada. They should pay particular attention to the differences in the business model as it applies in practice to prescription drug use advocacy both here and in Canada. This includes off label use for medications that are far less efficacious in the treatment of a particular malady but nevertheless increase the bottom line of the manufacturer promoting it. This should not be limited to spending by lobbyists, commercial advertising ,and the increase in government\industry partnerships of public universities in directing fundamental research, and funded by citizen tax receipts. This can indeed be construed as a Chimera
Be careful what you wish for .. for the devil is in the details…
Human-Animal Chimeras Are Gestating on U.S. Research Farms
A radical new approach to generating human organs is to grow them inside pigs or sheep.
by Antonio Regalado
January 6, 2016
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545106/human-animal-chimeras-are-gestating-on-us-research-farms/
They may fight against greatness in us who are the children of men, but can they conquer? Even if they should destroy us every one, what then? Would it save them? No! For greatness is abroad, not only in us, not only in the Food, but in the purpose of all things! It is in the nature of all things, it is part of space and time. To grow and still to grow, from first to last that is Being, that is the law of life. What other law can there be?
H.G. Wells
Cory how much is pharma contributing to your ambitions?
Screw you Booker…….you just fucked yourself……and the American people…..What bullshit excuse for not supporting the amendment. You lost my respect along with millions of other dems.
As a Canadian, I can only shake my head and Wonder… How many Americans have to die because of the politicians/pharmaceuticals unholy union.
that answer is provided by America’s Drone Formula! There is a number. Too many and you get an open revolt, too few and you have to raise your prices.
ps- americans have a love hate relationship with uncle lucifer.
Start using the term “Pro Death” to describe people who advocate continuing or not improving the horrible life span and infant mortality statistics of the USA.
Too bad for a while he looked like one of the good onesl
So did Obama, or BushBama as I eventually found. But a smoother Bush.
If you look at open secrets. org you can see that Booker isn’t even in the top ten for senators and pharma donations.
And Bernie Sanders is #7.
Bernie Sanders took the money and donated it to a health clinic.
I hope the clintonistas are listening. The very ones that gave this country to the gop and trump. I will never vote for a corporate dimocrap so stick that under your pillow because you will lose the next time you try to ordain a corporate wallstreet whore. The ignorant dimocraps are the ones responsible for the trump/gop occupation and booker is a shining example of how to throw it all away.
What a con Booker is….He and the neoliberals helped get Trump elected.
Wow, a senator doesn’t give a f*ck about you. How is that even news?
Cory Booker is another neoliberal New Dems phony with lots of dirty baggage in his past as mayor of Newark. A privileged suburban “golden boy” who used sophisticated, ethnically oriented bogus PR to sustain his career as a man of the people.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/20/the-ugly-truth-about-cory-booker-new-jersey-s-golden-boy.html
Read below about his active role as a corporate drone in the teacher bashing, school privatization movement:
https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/cory-booker-is-no-friend-to-public-educaton/
Well, it was pretty clear from Booker’s grandiose lecturing of the wretched Jeff Sessions that a Presidential run is in the cards for the latest New Dem fraud. These guys just don’t learn. And now this treachery. It’s almost as if Sanders knew Booker would reveal himself as a neoliberal on this vote–symbolic, to boot.
I hadn’t thought of that. Sanders just may be that good.
This is one of the reasons Sanders advocated for this amendment – to flush out the entrenched neoliberal whores from the ranks. In Indiana, our only democrat official, Joe Donnelly, also voted against the bill. Over the last five years, he’s received $245K from Eli Lilly, headquartered in Indianapolis.
The democratic party just doesn’t grasp the 2,000 year old lesson – you cannot serve two masters.
Bill Clinton officially aligned the party with Wall Street in 1992. That was the death knell for Main Street. Both corporate/billionaire owned political parties are there to give us the “illusion of choice”. Our choices are free market capitalism or capitalism.
“Booker and other Democrats who opposed the Sanders amendment are longtime friends of Big Pharma. As MapLight data shows, Booker has received more pharmaceutical manufacturing cash over the past 6 years than any other Democratic senator: $267,338. Other Democrats receiving six-figure donations from Big Pharma – Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, Washington’s Patty Murray, and Colorado’s Michael Bennet — also opposed the amendment.”
No surprise about Booker, about whom a decent argument could be made that he’s more Republican than Dem anyway, his unwavering support for big-money interests over the interests of the majority of American being one big area of concern for a growing number of Dems. These so-called Dems are banking on the fact that we don’t know inconvenient facts, like the ones above, about them. Important to let them know that we DO know.
Cory Booker has creepy looks. I think he will do good to limit his own ambitions to what all can be achieved in inner cities with lots of BLM types of people.
I know it’s not fair to judge a book by its cover–but he does look like a thug, doesn’t he?
It’s amazing how not-so-crypto racists manage to find each other, even in the most unlikely places.
I would like to see a picture of General Hercules so I can judge his character. Let me rephrase that.
I don’t think he is as bad as some of the others, but I will surely keep a good eye on my stuff if I find him seated next to me in the subway. One should never be racist these days.
looks like a republican. acts like one too. those are the worst, especially when they are democrats.
And this rising star wants to continue doing business the democratic way that caused HRC to lose in November. Not much has changed in Washington DT. And he comes out also to speak against a Trump pick? Why should I listen if he wants to continue the old dems platform?
Neoliberals have no political party. They vote their conscience which is most often for those that offer the biggest return. As for imported prescription drugs not being safe: Politicians know their “constituents” are not knowledgeable about the source of prescription drugs so it is easy to smoke the people they are suppose to represent. The sorry tale of, “I am only thinking about your safety” would fall apart if people knew a vast amount are already imported….by the drug companies!
As a retired clinician, I can honestly say that our own FDA is no paragon of safety. I cannot count the numbers of drugs approved by the FDA over my many years of practicing medicine, that were taken off the market because they killed people. Yep, I made it a policy of mine not to prescribe any new drug for a few years until I saw whether they had killed anyone. Wouldn’t use my patients as guinea pigs, not me. From antibiotics to statins to anti-inflammatories and many drugs in between, they were removed from the market AFTER they had killed people. So safety is not the issue with Canadian drugs. Liars all of them!
Practicing pharmacy for 40 years taught me that 1) the average physician will prescribe whatever the pharmaceutical salesman recommends, 2) the prescriber often knows little about the cost and doesn’t care to know, 3) the optimal drug is frequently not used 4) “new” drugs are often only analogs of old ones, are more expensive, and frequently less effective, and 5) a profit-driven health care system will always put profits above health care.
Pretty words and pretty faces leave me cold, you “Dismal Dollar Dems.” That is one thing Obama did for me- turned me into an independent who votes mostly Green. No longer will I be fooled by soaring rhetoric about their supposed support for the common man and woman. It is a lie and has always been a lie -at least since 1970. Go away Cory Booker. We have your number. You are a fraud.
If you vote Trump you will be able to make a difference. Green stuff is fodder for cattle.
Yeah, and that fodder this vegetarian creature swallows for storage, regurgitates later, swallows again and begins a complicated digestion that yields a highly complex protein source, which eventually gets shat to help grow more green fodder. Isn’t it just and absolutely amazing, efficient and highly sustainable process?! That green just keeps coming! Without it, of course, you couldn’t have those “world’s greatest” $199 – $999 Trump steaks that did SO well on QVC and snake oiled Sharper Image they only lasted 2 months before yanked.
So yes, we all know what you’re buying. Maybe there’s something to learn from that cow after all:
It ruminates.
You need to fold, shove and reverse the direction of flow of your rumination.
An inventive and highly reflective response from a 37%er telling a stranger on the internet what they need to do! Keep at it, General! Resist that rumination! Build those walls!
Twitler is the sewer feeding the swamp.
Well said. This is one of the better examples of why the corrupting influence of money in politics and the scourge of corporate personhood result in a democracy run by the very few, for the benefit of those few, and at the expense of the many.
Those politicians and judges that say “This is the system we have to live with” are not acting as innovative leaders. They in fact just join those that throughout time have signed, with the blood of those they are supposed to serve, a pact with the devil.
I couldn’t have said it better. This behavior guarantees 8 years of Trump/Pence
http://althealthworks.com/11540/vaccines-will-be-made-in-china-without-u-s-inspection-all-thanks-to-the-clinton-foundationyelena/ How come vaccines are not subject to the same scrutiny? They are worried that drugs will not be to US standards yet are happy to import Vaccines from China untested, 83%of US vaccines are from China.Possibly because there is no liability to PHarma for damage via vaccines. See http://www.vaccinesrevealed.com View for free this week.
Cory Booker, you just made one error too many. Don’t EVER count on my vote. Note, I have NEVER voted R, but I have abstained from voting at times.
I hope he or his family don’t have to experience, what my family does…choosing between what drug they can afford for the month…
We’ve got all their names and exactly how many $ the pharmaceutical industry has given them. They had better fix this. Booker thinks he’s going to run for president. We will never vote for him if he can’t even stand up for us on this tiny little amendment.
Shame on you Cory Booker and all of the Democrats who voted against this bill. We are watching. You Democrats need to be cohesive in doing what is in the best interest of those most vulnerable. If you do not what distinguishes you from the extreme ideologes on the Right?
Disgraceful cronyism.
Remember this the next time someone tries to blame “the market” for high drug prices.
This is perfect example of why people don’t vote. Senator Booker can rail against the nomination of Sessions as US AG then turn around and condemn the rest of us to paying hundreds if not thousands of dollar more than than we need to, to support and protect the profits of a very rich industry.
I hope all those that voted no are comforted by that fact that vote will cost thousands of Americans extra pain, suffering and in some cases death.
Sleep well on your pillow stuffed with blood money while I have sleepless nights wondering how I will pay for my blood pressure medicine that costs more than $400 an month but is less than $70 in Canada.
Of course there are some incidentals like what about the free market? And how about excessive government regulation, and the heavy handed government intervention? I can go into GNC and by thousands of products with not real testing for safety or effectiveness, why the difference? In fact I can buy bottle water that has no safety standards and is never tested for contaminates or toxic substances but those prescription drugs are so special we all need to layer upon layer of rules to keep the public safe.
Root causes are important. . .
“FIFTH ESTATE
Billions wasted on drug spending in Canada, research shows
Hidden camera investigation reveals questionable drug company marketing practices”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/drug-costs-canada-1.3927989
Notice that had 5 of the 13 democrats who voted against it voted for it, it would have passed. Reason #1 why I will not be voting for any democrats in 2018 or 2020.
If that’s the #1 reason I guess you won’t be voting for any republicans either?
So are the 3 congressmen noted in the paragraph to follow- PAID by BIG PHARMA to keep our medication/ Drugs Costing more than in other countries ->” A second amendment Wednesday, authored by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, would have allowed importation pending a safety certification, just like the previous laws passed on the subject. It also failed. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., used that amendment to claim on Twitter that he voted “to lower drug prices through importation from Canada,” and Booker referred to the Wyden amendment in his statement as well. This is a well-worn tactic from opponents of importation to mislead their constituents, as they know such certification will never occur.” It notes Certification will NEVER occur! I side with this-> ““My first response to that is show me the dead Canadians. Where are the dead Canadians?” former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican”
From @lhfang: @CoryBooker voted for to weaken FDA standards last month. His excuse for voting against drug import was drug safety standards.
FUCK.
The importation +/- certification excuse is a great example of how members reach their levels of hy
These DC pols never give a damn about how popular an idea is or that most of the public is in favor, and it’s nice to see this early – January 2017 – how neither party learned anything from the election.
What’s great about hearing this so early in 2017 is it’s easy to TWEET – remember to be nice.
And Obama wanted Another Corpawhore fraud like him to run in 2020. Fuck you, Cory.
Practical advice: The restriction is barbaric and outrageous, but it really isn’t being enforced.
I posted this below but, so it doesn’t get lost. . . If you require prescription meds that insurance won’t cover; if you don’t have drug coverage; if the prices you find for drugs you need are outrageously high; there are a number of fine and reputable Canadian pharmacies and associated companies that can provide very significant savings.
Example: Welcome to Canada Drugs
The Global Leader in Online Prescription Drug Savings
Thank you for the link.
The Hessians in Agent Orange’s admin might decide to come after you and YOU and you, though, after they finish rounding up the “criminal” undocumented, like the DACA people.
There is also this: https://www.goodrx.com/
I filled an Rx for a cream that wasn’t covered and paid around $50 instead of $120.
I disliked going to CVS instead of my very small and private local pharmacy, but sometimes you have to break tradition.
They might very well come after us, but it’s gonna be really terrible PR when hundreds of thousands of old and sick people start dying in the sports stadium concentration camps (not nearly enough jails and prisons) of exposure and lack of meds.
I don’t think the news crews could resist getting those heart-wrenching long lens shots from the helicopters.
You don’t see the dead Canadians because they turn into ice zombies.
Do we have to build a wall to keep them out?
Is there any way we could get Trudeau to ask David Thomson to pay for it? David could ask Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to help.
Not true!
We feed them to the sled dogs.
I like Cory Booker, but this is very troubling (to say the least). The hold that Pharma has on politicians is disgusting. People cannot afford their medications and politicians don’t care to make prescription drugs more affordable. It upsets me to no end.
Don’t be fooled. Booker said he supports the general idea, but not this specific resolution… which was one sentence long. The fact is that his critique was perfectly valid–medication imported from Canada shouldn’t bypass the FDA, regardless of how strict Canada’s standards are. If you notice, the Intercept runs stories that almost exclusively target moderate Democrats. They are not agenda free.
I do not like him at all. He is a corporatist. Always has been
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, bundled $41,000 for Cory Booker and hosted a fundraiser for him.
{ ( .) | (. ) }
. / \
. ======
the nose got de-spaced
Does this mean Booker is a Zionist in addition to his other assholishness?
What is omitted from this article is that the President now has the power to approve re-importation of drugs from Canada. This is the current law. All the President needs to do is have HHS certify Canada as safe. The only problem is that both Bush and Obama are paid whores of big pharma.
These re-importation bills only seek take this decision away from the President and make it law. If you want to buy drugs from Canada, write Obama. Or if you are too busy, write Trump in a week from now.
Dear Zaid and David… thank you for your article.
I may not be the only person who would like to know about pending votes…rather than talking to one another about something AFTER a vote…
I’d love to see advance notification articles that include contact info of voting reps… so that they can be called out, urged to represent the wishes of the public.
Of the many mechanisms for influencing votes, phone calls, letters and direct appeals have been successful.
I am beginning to think that, in their worst light, some comment boards can serve as a diversion from, rather than actual engagement with, levers of government…
… a concern is that the emergence of commenting boards is inverse proportion to influence placed upon elected representatives….
and give some the false sense that one’s voice is heard… and act as a substitute for meaningful engagement.
I may not be the only person who would like to know about pending votes…rather than talking to one another about something AFTER a vote…
This is a good point. It can be difficult to find that information in general in the media since the burden is on you to seek that info out for the most part, but I have found that judicious subscribing to various groups of interest is a really good way to get not only heads-up about the various bills pending, but also usually a link that greatly facilitates accessing tools to reach out to your congressional reps and senators.
A few that I get info from:
CREDO Mobile – All kinds of good stuff and you don’t have to be a customer to subscribe to their list
David Dayen’s weekly newsletter on financial stuff – https://tinyletter.com/DavidDayen
Color of Change – Lots of different issues
Free Press Action Fund – Net Neutrality and related issues
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) – Internet privacy etc
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Planned Parenthood – Women’s reproductive issues
Those are just a few off the top of my head that give me good information on getting active to oppose bad legislation. I’m sure others can chime in with other good suggestions. And joining one or more of the above leads to other groups doing the same kinds of good work to keep people informed in an increasingly obfuscatory environment.
Thanks Pedinska… those are great orgs…
I do get advance notices from some groups on pending votes… and the good news is that often they report back that overwhelming response forced the reps to reconsider some odious bill…
I have poorly articulated my thesis / concern…
given a more conspiratorial mood, I wonder if the flood of online commenting can act as a sop..in addition to being a data mining source for monitoring, trend analysis, strategy, positioning.
(see: Hedges, Giroux, Wolin, Chomsky, et al. on utility of social ‘relief valves’ for expression and channeling of protest, dissent)
Democratic institutions continue to be emasculated and supplanted by lobbying industry (sorry, I don’t have a gender neutral alternative) while social media, comment boards provide an outlet for the expression of views, and wittingly or not, can foster passivity.
Go to C-SPAN.org.
Go to your Senator/Rep’s website.
Sign up for a newsletter.
Go to the different committees online.
It’s a tremendous amount of work that is not challenging – just tedious.
The individual agencies might list pending Leg,
There are also public comments.
I found a great zine called Governing, which focuses on states – you may find something like it for the Feds.
You are absolutely right – if they want to be persuaded. With gun Leg, they didn’t care.
They still don’t unless it is so controversial, like the Ethics Committee vote.
agreed Joshua…
I need to get off my asterisk and go to work, including some tedium
Then I suggest that you follow Zaid’s twitter feed daily as I do. I bet if you went and checked his timeline you’d find that that it got mentions over the last couple of weeks.
Since pharmaceutical company Merck is one of his top 20 contributors, this vote diminishes his perception of independence.
Every single one of them who voted against it should be tarred and feathered and run out of the country on a rail. This is why capitalism must be overthrown. Medicine is not a commodity like shoes or flour. Medicine is life or death and access to it is a human right! Period! Reform will not work. It is the capitalist system that is diseased and its defenders are mentally ill.
A system where men with guns stand guard on an invisible line and prevent people from conducting voluntary transactions with people on the other side of the line is the antithesis of “capitalism”.
“Medicine is life or death and access to it is a human right! Period!”
How exactly do you have a “right” to access medicine Carolyn? Are you implying that you have a “right” to steal wealth from someone else in order to purchase medicine for yourself? Or, perhaps you mean that you have a right to keep people in slavery, working to produce the medicine for you? Or, are you implying that you have a “right” to conduct an armed robbery of the local pharmacy to access the medicine therein? Nonsense. You do not have a “right” to use force against others to acquire things for yourself. Period!
There IS one sense in which we should have a “right” to medication. We should be free to buy and sell medications without government interference(even across invisible lines), and government should have no power whatsoever to tell us what we can and can’t put into our bodies(even marijuana).
Let’s have a new Constitutional Amendment:
“The Right of The People to eat, drink, inhale, inject or otherwise consume any plant, chemical, mineral or any other substance shall not be infringed.”
The love of money is the route of all evil and this is just another pure example of this in action and it’s unfortunate but the Economic System we live under promotes this way of thinking and as long as we call Capitalism the way of the land things like this (money) will always get in the way of true compassion .
We must organize and find compassionate primary challengers to Bob Casey and the 12 other Democrats who are on record against dramatically lowering drug costs for US citizens by allowing imports from Canada.
And Corey Booker is supposed to be the future of the Democratic Party? Holy sh*t. This means Trump will stay in the WH for 8 looong years.
All of them are bought and paid for, they make me sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As others have emphasized, this needs to be remembered in the future. Booker and the entire list compiled by Pedinska. Pin it on your bulletin board!
“Any plan to allow the importation of prescription medications should also include consumer protections that ensure foreign drugs meet American safety standards. I opposed an amendment put forward last night that didn’t meet this test.” ——Sayeth the uncorrupted American Politician .
“Corporate money does not corrupt Judges”——Sayeth the uncorrupted
American Judge
“A legal caveat , fine print of course , on the label which warns of potential dangers ranging from leprosy to total organ seizure makes whatever is in the bottle meet American safety standards——Sayeth the uncorrupted
American Lawyer
————————————————————————————————
Look folks ,, Drug Dealing&Pushing INC, ( aka Big Pharma ) is nothing more than a drug cartel . Big Pharma is simply protecting its turf . That’s what drug cartels do , no?
In a comment below I listed all 13 senators who voted against the Sanders amendment and gave figures I found at Open Secrets for the contributions they received from Pharma manufacturers for all political cycles. That number is the first one to the right of their names.
Below is that same list but with figures for contributions from Pharmaceuticals/Health Products industries added (number to far right):
Bennet (D-CO) – $257,877 – $506,067
Booker (D-NJ) – $273,165 – $385,678
Cantwell (D-WA) – $74,750 – $173,625
Carper (D-DE) – $386,354 – $470,674
Casey (D-PA) – $340,030 – $628,329
Coons (D-DE) – $223,650 – $292,700
Donnelly (D-IN) – $127,562 – $272,533
Heinrich (D-NM) – $82,104 – $176,039
Heitkamp (D-ND) – $46,250 – $69,525
Menendez (D-NJ) – $579,307 – $795,895
Murray (D-WA) – $515,089 – $893,626
Tester (D-MT) – $110,500 – $176,550
Warner (D-VA) – $47,070 – $59,820
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=H04&cycle=All&recipdetail=S&sortorder=N&mem=Y&page=1
Here is the text of the amendment:
https://www.congress.gov/amendment/115th-congress/senate-amendment/178/text
I also recommend a cursory glance down that page focusing on (at least) the titles of the amendments being proposed (and who they are being proposed by) to get an idea of how far-reaching the changes are that are being proposed in the budget for next year. It will be quite devastating for many people. The abject neglect of the dem party wrt down-ballot voting is going to be felt by all of us for a very, very long time.
And before you extend credit to the many dems proposing these amendments, think about the fact that these amendments represent largely symbolic actions that will not impact the legislation, or will only do so in the least important places.
While some of the dems proposing them are sincere, there are others who only join the dissenting ranks so they can have something to point to when the hue and cry against them gets a bit too hot for their taste. I believe Cory Booker is one of the latter.
We’re only a week away form being rid of Obama and already Obama.2 is being foisted on the public, in the guise of Booker. He goes Prezzy Peace one step further by trying to roll back the toothless UN resolution on Israeli settlements. Bibi is pleased to have another ‘liberal’ Zionist in his camp.
Booker can join Hillary in the Hall of Shame.
Prezzy Peace ? I love it !!
LOL!!
Beats old Kissy Face hands down .
I think the article is misleading. The bill is not just for Canada, but importing from anywhere, even if they come directly from Canada. The catch to this is that drugs can come through Canada manufactured elsewhere. The better way to approve it is for drugs that meet regulatory standards of the FDA, EU, and Canadian regulatory body, which are all inline with the FDA standards and meet regulated post market surveillance.
“In a statement to the media after the vote, Booker’s office said he supports the importation of prescription drugs but that “any plan to allow the importation of prescription medications should also include consumer protections that ensure foreign drugs meet American safety standards. I opposed an amendment put forward last night that didn’t meet this test.””
Either way, the cost of drugs is so high that more people are dying of not being able to afford it then could ever possibly die of buying bad drugs.
Yes, it isn’t exactly what it appears to be, yet another example of a two party pig bowing to the true master, big campaign money, it is something principled and correct that we proles just can’t understand. I will now dutifully place my objections in the memory hole and remember that high drug prices KILLING people is in fact a great thing….
Thanks Jill. I was beginning to wonder if there were any Americans left that actually care or bothered to determine why the Senator voted this way INCLUDING THE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE. We organize a witch hunt first and then do the investigating later. Hoping as we move forward to unite this country we collect the facts before trashing one another. it is damaging to this so called democracy.
Then why didn’t he put forth an amendment that DID meet the test?!
Exactly!!! Hmmm Jill and Donee do you work in pharma or pharma related industries. I work in the health care industry and I feel like I have heard your arguments some where before….
Thank goodness there’s someone here who’s looking at this rationally. I get the feeling that many people here just want an excuse to demonize Booker, because they don’t feel he’s left enough. Despite the fact that he’s probably one of their strongest advocates in Congress.
Jill you realize that the 80% of the drugs consumed in the US are from China and India and those same drugs are going to Canada, it’s just a different markup when they come here.
Total bulshit and a farce.Do you think that these bastards are really concerned about the consumers? If they are then they should make drugs more afordable.If you can’t afford these ridiculous prices you can always risk and buy from abroad.What are you going to lose? I am a physician and can tell you that the cost of Epipen in UK is 66 dollars in my native Bulgaria is 6 dollars and here 600 dollars.So much for the greatest country in the world.Guess who’s being fucked!
“the Canadian government uses a review board and price negotiation to make drugs more affordable.”
Canada is the only country that has universal health care and NO national pharmacare! Our drug prices are the second highest in the world. The only way the national government can affect drug prices is for programs that are national – such as those for veterans. Each province has its own means tested program for some pharmaceuticals but a single payer system would get much lower prices.
I think that’s a fair point, and something I’ve heard — that Canada is looking to New Zealand for drug price relief. Now imagine you are in the United States, and we have it even worse! That’s our position.
More here
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/health-minister-jane-philpott-drug-prices-1.3932254
Sorry to say …but that is not quite correct. Yes you are right we have no National pharmacare. BUT we have strong provincial drug buying systems that negotiate costs and keep them down. Drug companies really want to do business with hospitals and other institutions that buy in big quantities. To do so they have to go through the gate keeper.
Oh and those gate keepers are paid sane salaries. The only “corruption” I have seen (I am in the health are industry) is the “free” trips etc. offered to physicians so they can learn about the newest drug.
Whether a nationalized system as opposed to a handful of Provincial boards would make a huge difference? Not so clear.
I’m extremely disappointed with Mr. Booker’s vote. Seniors will suffer, and seriously. And now Mr. Booker has a fundraiser supported by Ivanka Trump. Wow! In the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry and getting cozy with the Trumps. I’m so confused. Certainly not a fan of Mr. Booker anymore.
Thank you for writing the truth. These Democrats, like Cory Booker, need to be exposed for who they really are and who they are really fighting for – it isn’t the middle class, obviously.
Remember this vote when the endless braying about “free-trade!” starts and when they again explain how nothing can be done about the outsourcing of low-skilled manufacturing jobs because “globalization!”.
Remember that the only time they seem to care about public safety and government regulations is when it aligns with protecting the profits of powerful corporations.
Remember this when the elderly poor in our families have to decide between paying for prescription drugs and putting food on the table.
Cory Booker and 12 other Senate Democrats think we’re all stupid
Booker swears he had to vote against allowing these risky drugs to come in from Canada. Cuz, yanno, when I think third world nation with no standards Canada springs right to mind, right after Sweden.
Of course, what else is he going to say? that he’s bought by the huge New Jersey pharmaceutical industry? I think not.
Come to think of it, I would rather have drugs from Canada than frikkin New Jersey! What the hell.
It’s hard to come up with anything I wouldn’t prefer from Canada rather than New Jersey.
Right!
Fact of the matter is most , if not all of the drugs in question , including the painkilling opioids , are manufactured big Big Pharma ( e.g Abbott , Phizer ,,etc ) . I personally know that the Canadian ones are . So why this BS about American safety standards ?
GREED !!!
… and let’s not forget that the ‘opioid epedemic’ is largely a creation of big pharma pushing and dumping them in massive quantities. About as principled as the British empire pushing opium on the Chinese, who had the audacity to not buy enough East India company goods….
Just exactly how much money has Booker taken directly or indirectly from Big Pharma? What has he been promised?
So much for Booker’s shot at the title in 2020. He’s in the pocket of Big Pharma and, perhaps, many more. We don’t need that.
Look on the bright side: the dust of 2016 has not even settled and we can cross Cory Booker off the list of Democrats to consider supporting in 2020. It’s always best to find these kinds of things out right off the bat, instead of during the primaries.
“Look on the bright side: the dust of 2016 has not even settled and we can cross Cory Booker off the list of Democrats to consider supporting in 2020.”
Yes. People just have to avoid being fooled by whatever conciliatory bones Booker might throw to the dogs closer to the election. Remember–he won’t have changed. Don’t be fooled–Once a snake, always a snake!
Cory Booker just proved that he is Ted Cruz in black face. Oh wait, even Ted Cruz voted for this bill: https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=1&vote=00020
The “blocked importation” link is dead
Thanks for flagging Carlos, but the link works for me.
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00377
Learn more about the ‘real” dems everyday
The vast majority of medications, brand and generic, in our pharmacies are already manufactured overseas. Those same factories in China and India make drugs for Canada and the rest of the world, all controlled by the five or so worldwide pharmaceutical companies. The excuse that we will somehow be in danger from those Canadian meds is just a smokescreen. It’s not as if they only do quality control on the drugs coming into the US. Of course we need strong oversight by the FDA, that is already in place and can be strengthened.
Excellent point!
Booker is from Pharmaceutical, NJ. Which is also known as Newark, NJ. Booker keeps his anus on display along Route 7. It’s even up on billboards. The billboards, along with the graphic image, read, “I’m a Democrat. I’ll whore my holes for you money.”
I don’t like this line… “The safety excuse is mostly a chimera, as most of the drugs that would be imported from Canada were originally manufactured in the United States; they’re just cheaper there, because the Canadian government uses a review board and price negotiation to make drugs more affordable.”
This article is a prime example of why we have Donald Trump ruling over us and the overall ascendancy of neo-Nazism in the US…it’s 100% the fault of Democrats like Cory Booker who have deceived the voters when in fact they are bribed and paid for shills for the ruling class and corporate America. The Democratic party continues to betray the country over and over and again and again; and will keep doing so until it there is nothing left but smoldering ruins and their fat bank accounts.
Exactly
Only morons still think this is a political problem that can be solved politically .
The people in control simply do not exist in the same social setting as the overwhelming majority of the people they control . When 99.9 % , of a species, is controlled by 01% , and the two exist in totally different worlds ,,,,,, Well even morons can see what will evolve ,, NO ?
“Any plan to allow the importation of prescription medications should also include consumer protections that ensure foreign drugs meet American safety standards. I opposed an amendment put forward last night that didn’t meet this test.” ——Sayeth the uncorrupted American Politician .
“Corporate money does not corrupt Judges”——Sayeth the uncorrupted American Judges .
“A legal caveat , fine print of course , on the label which warns of potential dangers ranging from leprosy to total organ seizure makes whatever is in the bottle meet American safety standards——Sayeth the uncorrupted American Lawyers .
——————————————————————————————————–
Look folks ,, Drug Dealing&Pushing INC, ( aka Big Pharma ) is nothing more than a drug cartel . Big Pharma is simply protecting its turf . That’s what drug cartels do , no?
Another greedy fucking lying whore.
Which means he will be a top pick by the DNC for 2020.
The safety bullshit surely cannot be bought by anyone with an IQ over 50.
I’ve begun bookmarking articles like this about anyone who could be a potential dem front runner in 2020 for future sharing with people in my life who need to be reminded that the picture they are being shown is no deeper than the canvas it’s painted on.
In the meantime, if folks are tired of the current political scene, tired of being kicked in the teeth by both parties, I encourage folks to check out the Democratic Socialists of America.
http://www.dsausa.org/
It’s past time for us to start trying to build an alternative to the captured system that exists now. And the DSA is the only group I’ve found that actually gives a shit about what we’re all facing because they come from our ranks and rely on their members to fund them, a key distinction that will need to continue if we are ever to overcome the sewer our corporate-funded politics has become.
Voting begets voting and there is no change there .
Buy a gun and and put the bastards at rism !!!
Not sure what rism is. Let us know when you get your militia off the ground and it has a website so we know how to join.
In the meantime, some of us will be working on political alternatives so we have multiple irons in our fires. Gotta keep them burning hot while the stakes are being cut, put into place and until we have bodies to tie to them. :-)
Quiver has agreed to come to the local version of the national women’s march coming up. Sweet girl.
I would love to know why Booker is singled out in the headline for this story. I’m from WAshington state and I’m mad as hell to hear that Patty Murray opposed the amendment too. Americans should be made aware of ALL the Democrat politicians who voted against this.
Probably because Booker is considered a hero by some progressives, and because he is rumored to be in contention for the presidential race for the left arm of the Corporatist Party in 2020. But I agree with you. We need to keep track of ALL of the sellouts, no matter their political aspirations for the future.
I agree with you Trishia, and there is a link in the first sentence of the third paragraph that leads to the roll call vote on this amendment:
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=1&vote=00020#position
The reason the article focused mainly on Booker is found in this description from the article:
As such, he warrants closer scrutiny than the others, perhaps, but if my dem senator, Sherrod Brown had voted for this, I’d be on the phone pointing out how his constituents might view this as traitorous in the next election. :-)
Because he’s a young light skinned black senator who, marketing analysis has shown, can convince a small majority of the voting population to vote for him and like him even while pursuing an economic agenda that benefits only the top 1% of the population. It worked with Barack, it might work again with Cory.
I too am from WA state. Senator Murray is well past her use-by date. It’s time to dump these gutless, self-serving, neoliberal, corporate ass-kissing democrats. Both Murray and Booker just heard from me.
Turn your anger into emails: https://www.reddit.com/r/SandersForPresident/comments/5nicm2/these_democrats_just_voted_against_bernies/
Don’t forget Maria Cantrell, the other senator from Washington state. She voted against this bill also. I am actually more angry that neither senator was willing to sign on to any of the representatives objections during the joint Congress reading of the electoral votes. Our new Wa. representative, Pramila Jayapal, at least had the internal fortitude to stand and object to the vote counts in one of the states (can’t remember which one now). Seems pretty basic to me that we should address that issue full force, as opposed to all the noise about Russia hacking our election.
The only vote Mr Booker will get from me is a vote to take him to the guillotine when the revolution finally comes. Along with the rest of his ruling class oppressors.
No worries. The Democratic party is dead, as is the two-party system. Booker will never be in the White House. Now, time to start putting out the trash.
This is the only solution. The entire system is too corrupt to be salvaged. I agree-time to put out the trash and start over again. With safeguards in place to ensure the people actually retain control this time.
Agreed, but unfortunately the current system is truly a two party system, it is massively rigged in their favor. And the laws won’t be changed by those who get guaranteed power because of them. As Bernie said, it is going to take a massive, grassroots movement to force their hand- everyone should be doing all they can to get that ball rolling. The easiest (and therefore most realistic) move is to continually talk about the rot that represents the parties, and how the MSM refuses to see anything outside the two party lens. Speaking of MSM, isn’t it great how much coverage this got? Hours and hours of how meanie Comey is going to whacked on the nose by some watchdog (and his email was the LEAST questionable part of the FBI investigation, how about looking into the blatant destruction of evidence which for some reason was just fine?), not a peep that I heard about this. Not like common americans care about ballooning drug prices, right? And they wonder why anyone with a brain thinks the MSM is a useless pile of crap. http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-04-18/poll-just-6-percent-of-people-say-they-trust-the-media
And , pray tell ,,, who will you vote for next time ?
LOL!!!
Not saying this excuses Booker, but it’s a little more complicated than campaign cash for him. Pharma industry is huge in NJ. You could make a strong case that the cuts into their profits from this legislation would adversely affect his state/constituents. It’s a basic problem in representative democracy, when elected officials have to choose between what’s in the best interest of the people vs. their electorate.
you’re describing another aspect of how parochial interests hold undue influence over our government because of the role of money and our political patronage system. that doesn’t seem any more complicated than campaign contributions, really.
but either way, these forms of patronage are *corruptions* of representative democracy, not fundamental to them necessarily.
This is the low art of pointing and grunting “Him bad,” the caveman’s approach to politics. No one voted for or against anything. What was voted on was the addition of unrelated amendments to the budget bill (which is fat-tracked and considered outside of the normal rules of the Senate. You can attach a bill to protect a rare salamander to the budget bill, other Senators can decide that that has nothing to do with the budget, vote against it – and the caveman level of “journalism” at work here will say that they voted to drain wetlands, love polluters and eat babies…because Grog and Gunk here carve their articles onto cave walls.
You call the article caveman journalism, and I call your comment above “damage control” or “distraction.” It’s a little more complicated than campaign cash for him, huh? How do you know? Are you a Booker staffer? A good friend? If not, you don’t really know, do you?
so . . . Booker was lying about the “safety first” thing?
grunt once for “yes.”
LOL!!!!
Revealing typo of the week:
the budget bill (which is fat-tracked and considered outside of the normal rules of the Senate.
Perhaps David could offer up a better solution for us poor, grunting cave people to stop being raped by the pharma industry than simply banging our clubs on the doors of the people who are selling us out to them.
nice catch Pedinska!
Sooo he did indeed ‘vote against something’? And we’re the dummies? You elitist dips remind me of 19th century British aristocrats, many of which had been inbred into imbecility, but would constantly ‘tut tut!’ at all the stupid ‘common people’. And had tons of wealth and power despite being less capable than your average rodent of taking care of themselves. Good old beltway brainiacs, people who think ‘Hamilton’ is great history. (PS, Alexander Hamilton was an autocratic fuck who thought the Bill of Rights was a terrible idea).
LOL. Great comment! Thanks for the laugh.
Thank you for calling this elitist crap out. And as another poster said– so why didn’t Booker propose his own amendment?
LOVE the comment about Hamilton– all good empires hide their dirt– in the US you make musicals of the dirt or glorify the slave owner monopolists “Fathers of the Country” nice dads!
Cory we expect this from theoney grubing rnc, but you are supposed to be for the people, you were on my list to vote for on 2020 if you ran now the Duck is looking better than you, shame on you. Money rules your life, not the people
Cory Booker just ruined his career.
If only! I’m not so sure–plenty of brain-dead “progressives” out there.
Unfortunately too true–including relatives of mine in NYC. sigh…
Of course Booker has to cow tow to big PhrMA if he plans on running for president. He’s calculating that he needs their support to win, just like Clinton and Bush and Obama.
Pharmaceuticals is another example of how the Democrats are representing the left wing and the Republicans the right wing of America’s single party, the ‘Neolibralism Pary’ that is likely under the control of the plutocrats – like everything else.
As long as the country of origin was labeled, who cares but the greedy pharma companies. Give consumers a choice. Might need an import tax like on all other foreign made goods.
Has anybody here noticed that you see lots of drugs on the lawyers dockets advertised on TV. Seems like our new drugs go from being OK to mass litigation in 6 months because of side effects
Booker is just a politician……full of sh…t
Very angry.
Sold out, yet again. The Democrats are lost to us.
Not all Dems voted as the traitor Cory Booker has, however if the voting public doesn’t make the Democrats pay, they will never learn as they happily collect their election funding from Big Pharma et al.
.
I’d like to have the names of the other 12 Democrats that voted along with Booker and how much money they got for their campaigns from the Pharma industries. It needs to be put on all of the social media or maybe the Green Party needs to post these anti-people politician voting records.
The democrats who voted against this amendment (from the link in article) and the amount of money they received from pharma manufacturers (All cycles via Open Secrets):
Bennet (D-CO) – $257,877
Booker (D-NJ) – $273,165
Cantwell (D-WA) – $74,750
Carper (D-DE) – $386,354
Casey (D-PA) – $340,030
Coons (D-DE) – $223,650
Donnelly (D-IN) – $127,562
Heinrich (D-NM) – $82,104
Heitkamp (D-ND) – $46,250
Menendez (D-NJ) – $579,307
Murray (D-WA) – $515,089
Tester (D-MT) – $110,500
Warner (D-VA) – $47,070
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=H4300&recipdetail=S&sortorder=N&cycle=All
I don’t understand the ‘safety’ issue. I am looking at an inhaler I just picked up from Walmart, manufacturer Glaxo Smith Kline (flovent) on the box it says it was made in Singapore. I’ve had other scripts made in Israel, Ireland… So what’s the story? If you are an American company you may have drugs made outside the US and bring them in to sell. Where are all our drugs made? Overseas drug manufacturers have, how many FDA inspectors per how many plants? and this is different than buying from Canada. I wonder if the drugs purchased in Canada are made in the same overseas location?
Many generics are made overseas. Which makes the whole ‘we can’t trust foreign made drugs!’ argument completely hollow. My guess is that they simply go through the same checks that the FDA does on US made drugs- why not apply the same rules? Problem solved! (which tells you that isn’t really the ‘problem’…)
he’s just trying to keep it “incremental.”
Exactly – because that’s served the Democrats sooooo well.
It is rumored that Corey Booker may run for President in 2020. I would just like to say that I will never vote for him after this bit of sickening hypocrisy. If he can not vote for our best interests, why should we help him to further his grandiose ambitions?
Well, well. It appears Mr. Booker isn’t as principled and “for the people” as much as he would like for the American people to believe. HE AIN’T FOR Y’ALL, GET IT?
When some bought Congressman talks about safe drug, let us not forget the terrible results from the NJ company who put Vioxx on the market. Want to worry about safety…well, they did NOT, so why this BS about safety in Canada. Do you really think Canada would let harmful drugs in to its citizen? I ais just a Congress bought with drug money…no difference to me than if a Mexican cartel bought them off. The drug companies do NOT give a damn about you nor L, NOT one bit.
This makes no sense. You’re saying that drugs are sometimes dangerius, so we should have… less quality control? Come on man, think for a second. The Senator has a point.
Sigh… read some of the earlier posts about where the drugs are manufactured. And no the senator doesn’t have a point. You already have the infrastructure to review drug imports– you do it now.
Read a bit about the pharma industry — it is MULTI-NATIONAL meaning it manufactures in many nations. Under the name Merck etc.
Its like Apple manufacturing in China– get with the 21st century please.
This kind of thing is what makes the US such a great place. This is the democracy that the US wants to duplicate around the world. Elected persons who represent you will always do what is best for you whether you know it or not. If you suffer more from their actions, try to realise that you would be suffering much more had they done the opposite and thank them. Just because these persons are part of a party, go to expensive feasts and become surrounded by luxury, dont get the wrong idea that they are party animals, they are but humble modest participants in need of reminders of wealth to inspire them and their constituents who are in constant danger of believing that lesser is better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Sd3wq4REQ
The more people pay for drugs, the more incentive Big Pharma will have to keep them alive. Activist groups should be campaigning for higher drug prices.
In addition, just because a drug is safe for Canadians, does not mean that it is safe for Americans. Canadians often keep themselves in shape, so their physiological reaction to a drug may be completely different from that of an American.
Of course, I don’t expect people to understand these type of complexities, which is why everyone should just accept on faith that their legislators are acting in their best interests.
It just warms my heart. Great advice. I am quitting the gym program. My wife and kids will pick up the slack whilst i engage in couch potatoism. Now that i have been enlightened, i am going to write my congressperson a letter of protest that i feel very guilty about not paying more for my medicines and request a price increase.
Your attempt at humor and sarcasm is failing. Although your attempt at stupidity is spot on.
In almost any career, stupidity is a very useful attribute. However, like anything else, it requires practice to perfect it. The comment section of The Intercept provides an outstanding training venue. Welcome!
since no one can be as dumb as these comments indicate…i must assume this is either A: A joke…or B: YOU are the joke.
Apparently 52 Senators were dumb enough to believe those arguments, although the money they receive from Big Pharma may have somewhat affected their judgment.
Another victory for Putin ! He is omnipresent and aims to destroy USA.
You’re probably right! This must have been a commie…. err…. Ruskie plot to poison the American people with tainted Russkie drugs! We must defend american purity of essence!
About as smart as some of the absurd semanticist arguments deriding the article being made by certain posters, who methinks are either fuck dumb or posting to defend a financial/political interest. Hope you all are either being paid well or can see a path to your own spot near the top of the dung heap, karma is a bitch.
This is just tremendously dishonest reporting.
“In a statement to the media after the vote, Booker’s office said he supports the importation of prescription drugs but that “any plan to allow the importation of prescription medications should also include consumer protections that ensure foreign drugs meet American safety standards. I opposed an amendment put forward last night that didn’t meet this test.”
This argument is the same one offered by the pharmaceutical industry. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which lobbies against importation, maintains that it opposes importation because “foreign governments will not ensure that prescription drugs entering the U.S. from abroad are safe and effective.””
————————————-
You made no argument against what Booker said. You just mentioned his name next to “Big Pharma” to invoke a boogeyman.
The entire resolution is a single sentence long, and you couldn’t even put it in the article, so people know what this is all about?
I support this amendment, but the outrage surrounding Booker and those who voted against it is completely misplaced. You know what’s worse than these Nay votes? Hit pieces and shoddy journalism.
Dylan, Dylan, Dylan…first of all, as many here have pointed out, there really is no concern for drugs coming in from Canada. Second–do we REALLY believe that U.S. organizations are still in the business (if they ever really were) of keeping Americans safe? Booker’s statement to the press is a load of bullshite, meant to distract from his support of the oligarchs and simultaneous f-ing over of the average American. If we’re going to turn this country around, we need to get much better at recognizing the tactics that these pieces of human shite (I’m talking about Booker) use to deflect attention from their shenanigans.
Yes, I know plenty of scientists who work with the FDA. And for pharmaceutical companies, actually. These conspiracy theories that everyone is out to get us are wacko. The problem is that one hit pieces like this lends credence to others. It is now established, for example, that Booker is a big pharma shill (he isnt). Now any other claim can be made against Booker that relies on this assumption, and people will believe it. And so on. It’s how bubbles are created. The fact is that his critique is perfectly valid. Imported drugs need to be subject to FDA standards, regardless of Canada’s own standards. They can’t just bypass our own quality control. That’s not a load of shite. But it won’t stop people believing what they want to believe. In their minds, Booker is already the enemy. The goal of this article has been accomplished.
“It is now established, for example, that Booker is a big pharma shill (he isnt).”
First of all, if you have evidence to prove that Booker isn’t a pharma shill, please share it. I have an open mind and can be persuaded by solid evidence.
Second, don’t worry, Dylan–most Americans are still stupid enough to believe everything that MSM tells them. Unless this article runs in the WaPost, the NYT or some other major publication, I’m sure Booker’s reputation is still pretty safe with most “progressives.” Even you, Dylan, believe the line that Booker delivered to the press, despite the fact that you’ve presumably read all of the very convincing evidence posted in these comments suggesting that it was a line of complete and utter bullshite.
HE LIED
The protections are part of other laws.
Did you guys fact check this? Your very first sentence links to the bill information, where it says clear as day that the sponsor was Senator Klobuchar, not Sanders. Sanders was a cosponsor, which is not the same thing as “introducing” the bill.
I saw the same thing. I guess Sanders has more profile than Klobuchar.
This article really should mention for context that the amendment that was proposed was non-binding, and would not have led to any action. This was an act of grandstanding, and a resolution affirming the cuteness of kittens would have had the same effects on prescription drug prices as this amendment.
Votes like these and Democrats like Booker are how Trump won by running to the left of the mainstream of the Democratic Party on trade, jobs, and prescription drug prices. Until people like Booker are made to feel electoral pain in the form of credible primary opposition, they will continue to pursue the so-called “bipartisan center” over policies that real voters actually prefer. I’ll go door to door for any decent Democrat who opposes either Booker or Menedez in their next primaries, and I’m far from the only one.
I would leave the Democratic over this but my state has closed primaries. Shame on all that voted against this.
I would leave the party over this. The only reason I stay is because my state doesnt
Senator Booker,
Shame on you. People like you steal my enthusiasm about humanity. Hypocrisy and not just self-centered calculation. Don’t pretend you are fighting for working men and women. You have already gone over to the dark side.
Anyone expecting the Dems to go to bat for them against Trump should wake up, and see who was voted back as House leader, and also the Senate leader. Two of the most corrupt Dems ever to pollute the air in the Capitol building with the hot air lies.
But the sheeple continue to be their usual stupid, naive and credulous selves. I’m now just telling all my friends and relatives who are being willing, uncritical sheep, to fuck off and leave me to my intelligent associates. These people are more dangerous than Trump, because they are the ones who got Trump elected.
“I’m now just telling all my friends and relatives who are being willing, uncritical sheep, to fuck off and leave me to my intelligent associates. These people are more dangerous than Trump, because they are the ones who got Trump elected.”
I hear you on this. I’m getting to this point, as well. They are DANGEROUS people, these naive ones. Very, very dangerous. And I’m getting pretty sick of going along to get along.
Gee 13 dems made up for the 13 republicans, bi-partisanship warms my heart.
I say make the most of the Unlucky 13 symbolism and protest where it matters: to and at the Democrats, including regular Democrats who spend their time making excuses for their party. Don’t enable them, don’t even enable the enablers. Vichy Democrats was a good insult: it is about to be an evenhanded description.
Gee 13 dems made up for the 13 republicans, bi-partisanship warms my heart.
Years ago Greenwald wrote a post about this. I believe it was during the two year period where Obama and the dems had both houses of congress in their control, yet couldn’t quite manage to get anything done.
In that article he pointed out how the dems always managed to have juuuuuust enough votes shifting to the other side to enable shitty legislation that the dem leadership piously denounced to squeak by anyway. He also pointed out the revolving nature of those supporters, which enabled no single dem to look shitty and traitorous enough for them to be identified as republican-lite with enough certainty to endanger their seat at the table.
Sure wish I could put my finger on that article again because it was a real eye-opener for a lot of folks I shared it with on just how bipartisan all of this crap legislation truly is.
The democratic party is not stupid. They are liars. Even more so than republicans, who truly have no shame about how they are trying to destroy people.
Rotating Villains
http://www.salon.com/2010/02/23/democrats_34/
thanks to you both, will read!
these scumbags in Congress have their own super cush healthcare plan and could care nought for regular citizens healthcare or health, for that matter.
They don’t even have t pay for their health insurance I think.
funny guy
thinks taking money from big farma will get him re-elected
no – it will get him e-jected however
what a jerk
Good to know he’s bought and paid for. What a disgusting ploy.
People who turn their back on the Middle Class (i.e., 95% of the Democrats and all of the Republicans) shouldn’t be surprised when the Middle Class wakes up and turns their backs on them. Follow the money.
The answer is simple: if we eliminate the Middle Class, then it won’t be a threat any more.
Don’t laugh–these people are so stupid and lacking in insight that they just might believe this. Nope, won’t cease to be a threat. Just will become part of the newly-poor–and will become more and more pissed off until they realize who the true enemies are–and go after them. We are getting there. Guillotines are being sharpened as we speak, I think.
My RX for glaucoma was running $99.00 per month at my local pharmacy. I ordered from a Canadian Pharmacy. That cost me $51.00 for 3MONTHS. It was the identical brand and packaging as from my local pharmacy, and was mailed from San Francisco, Ca. That is a significant difference. I hope they do make it legal again to order that way.
Yes because there’s no way a backwards country like Canada has protections for its pharmaceutical supply (sarcasm)
Honestly they don’t even try to pretend they aren’t bought anymore.
“Honestly they don’t even try to pretend they aren’t bought anymore.”
Is this how we can tell that the Empire is about to die? They don’t even bother to try to cover their tracks anymore.
The USA drug companies sell cheap to Canada and other countries to prevent foreign companies from rising up as competition. Meanwhile, they rely on our (paid off) government to enact regulations that ensure their drugs are subsidized and mandated to the individual user, but highly priced to generations of taxpayers behind the scenes. This only works if they keep congress from allowing US residents from importing the cheaper drugs from other countries. It’s worth all the campaign contributions to keep all these favorable regulations in place.
The USA drug companies sell cheaper to Canada to prevent Canadian companies from rising up as competition, while relying on our government to enact regulations that ensure their drugs are subsidized and mandated to the individual user, but highly priced to generations of taxpayers behind the scenes. This only works if they keep congress from allowing US residents from importing the cheaper drugs from Canada, which is worth all the campaign contributions spent to ensure it.
Why didn’t Bernie put this on an email to us or on “OurRevolution.com” before the vote? I thought the Revolution was about ask for our help in passing progressive bill and keeping repressive ones from becoming law and not just donate, donate, donate.
My experience is that it is easy and economic to buy drugs from extra USA sources.
I’ve suffered from severe GERD (fancy name for heartburn) for a long time. The only med that has ever worked is a particular proton pump inhibitor that my insurance won’t cover and that is either not available or is ridiculously priced at US pharmacies.
Example:
Costco pharmacy — $755 for a 30 day supply.
Canadian online/mail order pharmacy — $44 for a 90 day supply
I’m not kidding. And there’s a long list of meds that have similarly bizarre price differences.
Nobody is enforcing this disgraceful prohibition, so do your research and, if you find significant savings are possible, just have your doc write a paper scrip and follow the guidance that you will easily find online from a nice, reputable pharmacy in our neighbor to the north.
I suffer from it too. Controlling later night eating and alcohol helps. Changing diet also.
My immediate relief is simple, and inexpensive. One teaspoon of quality baking soda in a half glass of water, with one to two teaspoons of organic apple cider vinegar. Works most of the time like a charm. It can’t hurt to try it.
i have to be careful with my diet, and if it gets bad i take pepto bismol or prilosec. I’ll try your suggestion.
This baking soda solution brings up a good point. Oftentimes these expensive meds aren’t necessary–and aren’t very good for us, either. I don’t suggest that natural remedies can be the answer in every case, but they often can. And are much better for us.
Try a few almonds. Works for me every time.
I bought from Canada Drugs (.com) for years until I switched to all generics. No problems. Because it’s mailed to you, you had to be mindful of when you ordered. Nice savings!
Doug, I remember when this whole issue came up years ago, they had reports of elderly people taking buses to Canada to buy their drugs, which they could not afford here. I wonder if that has been outlawed….
It is probably technically illegal, but people are still doing it.
Unless you live on the border and just want to pop over for other reasons, though, it really isn’t necessary these days.
Example: Welcome to Canada Drugs
The Global Leader in Online Prescription Drug Savings
Lansaparole (Prevacid). 42 count at SAMs club-$14.88
Oh Well, I was waiting to see his real side. I don’t believe in great politicians anymore. Booker has been pretending to be one and I almost fell for it.
I may not be from his state and can not vote for him right now but Booker 2020 Fucking Forget About It!
Booker’s attack an Sessions and his voting against the amendment has caused me to lose most of my respect for him. Iit was O.K to co sponsor the medals and join Sessions in presenting them, but now he is so racist that he can’t be confirmed? Then why did he work with him before? The only excuse for voting against the amendment is to protect your own interests in big pharma stocks. Every day the democratic party finds to ways to embarrass itself, and I lose more reasons to come back to the party party I walked away from after the convention.
yep following in the clinton obama clinton footsteps. our new progressive leadership in the party of progress.
American safety standards? That is the lowest bar you could possibly find. The pharma companies and the bought and paid for FDA and CDC are a joke when it comes to caring if their products are “safe”.
I am a nurse who worked in cardiology for over 15 years. A vital drug we give to our patients post angioplasty with coronary stent placement even before they leave our lab is Plavix. It was Plavix until the patent ran out . Now we give the generic, clopidogrel. It’s manufactured in INDIA ! Problems with inspecting those facilities are well known and some suspect the reluctance to cooperate stems from the likelihood of failing USFDA inspections due to political motivations. Yet, foreign made generics are dispensed all over this country without a problem. American Pharma has accommodated them and continues with obscene profits. I am profoundly disappointed with Cory Booker and the other Dems who voted their self interest rather than all America’s. Another straw on this camel’s back.
What a BS argument! 1). They’re the very same drugs. 2). Canada’s drug testing requirements have higher standards than the USA. 3). Canadians outlive Americans. 4). Unaffordable drugs help fewer patients. 5). Your system will be bankrupt before special interest drug companies release control of politicians. 6). Where is your completion and/or generic drugs..? Epipen example: only one source versus 8 suppliers in Europe..?
Agreed, and #3 is a huge point. The simple truth is that high drug prices KILL people. Bernies campaign point about the poor and elderly getting to choose between buying a life saving drug or keeping the heat on is completely true. When you include the double whammy of overpriced/largely useless health insurance, I am sure people are dying because of it. I appreciate Obamacare, as I would have no coverage otherwise, but it is either absurdly expensive or a joke. The cheap plans have NO prescription coverage, and the mid level and higher plans (I had ONE choice in this area) have ballooned in price (+$200 a month in my case). And yet the insurance companies booked record profits last year… while bailing out of the exchanges because they’re ‘losing money’. Pitiful, I wonder how these executives look at themselves in the mirror.
Remember to use some of the energy that you all are using to post a comment on this page to go to these senators’ web sites and write to them as well. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
What a load of crap. I work in the drug industry and our supply chains are very much intertwined with Canada. Health Canada and the FDA are co-ordinated and integrated. The standards are the same. It’s called “GMP” – look it up. What bull. Its 100% to do with profit – and be honest about it.
I live in Canada, when I’m in North America, and the only difference between drugs sold in the USA and Canada is the price.
US citizens are getting fleeced, better use the right word, defrauded, by the US drug companies.
It has little to do with Canadian negotiating skills, rather than legislation stopping users from getting over-charged.
I live in Indochina and the governments of Cambodia, Laos and VietNam are the only legal importers of medicine. A lot of the products are manufactured in Brazil and India, and are of high quality, the only thing is these two countries do not recognise patents.
‘Water pills’ that cost me CAD$5.00 in Canada cost me USD$0.20 (twenty cents) for the same product in Cambodia – but packaged locally. The ‘contents’ of pills are manufactured overseas – some even from the USA – and simply inserted in vials in this country.
The can be few more amoral things than getting rich from others ill-health.
Thank you Mr Jay Hughes for bringing your worldly experiences that put to shame the horrible exploitation by US drug makers of American consumers.
The Dems better hope they never run Corey “I never met a hedge fund I didn’t love” and “I grovel before big pharma for my livelihood in Congress” Booker.
He’ll lose bigger than Hillary Clinton, and I’d guess he wouldn’t get near the number of Bernie Sanders voters that held their noses and voted for Hillary Clinton.
Corey Booker and his stance on this issue- perfect exemple of why the Democratic party is in disarray and electorally dead all across the country even among its natural constituents. If there are a bigger bunch of self-servicing hypocrites claiming to be progressives than “centrist” Democrats, I don’t know who they are.
In complete agreement with you, rr.
These corrupt beyond comprehension politicians are despicable.
They make me think of the image of a bunch of greedy appalling men during a time of illness moving from house to house in the shadows looking to rob the sickly of all their possessions as they lay helplessly suffering.
hmmm.. wonder how many super pacs are involved in this?
As if Canada feed drugs that poison their citizens!
Get out of the pharma pockets Cory Booker and other Democrats!
Show that you are with the people or get out!
But USA is “exceptional”. No one else could possibly do anything better than them. To admit that would be such a climb down, and USA doesn’t know how to do humiliation – even if it means saving USA lives.
God I’m angry.
Exactly. Pride before the Fall
I really liked Core Booker until he did this, was he bought by big Pharma?
This ‘they might not be safe’ bs is what we faced in NZ, over personal importation of generic hep C medication last year. If they are safe for Canadians, they are safer for Americans than not getting what is needed. The NZ govt guidelines now includes a link to the buyers club Fixhepc, (saved my life, and 1000’s) as they have proven via clinical trials they are identical to Gilead’s, but a fraction of the price. 2 million people have died in 2 years of hep C alone because of the price, Corey Brooker’s finessing while accepting large donations from pharma lobbyists is not a good look. Try harder. Look up Greg Jefferys, David Cowley, and please share. 2% of the world has hep C so you know someone.
Establishment democrats TRUE COLORS are shining through!
Like the good neo liberal that he is booker sides with big pharma over his constituents. And so many democrats still cannot understand why they keep losing elections. Good grief.
Senator Booker. I didn’t realize you were a sell-out to your constituents and those of us that respect you throughout the country. You disappointed me big time.
This is why we need the walls so we can chuck some of the people over it.
Where? In Canada?
The solution to drug cost is the same as the solution to healthcare. It’s the size of the pool. Agenda 21 babies. The biggest pool is all of us. then the price can be regulated down. I say free contraceptives are an urgent priority. Test drugs? Easy and fast with a 7 billion database. FFS. We’re in this together!
I totally agree !
Cory Booker is a racist pig. It is middle-income black families and elders that are hurt by his disgraceful vote. Many of them can’t afford prescription medicines and do without them, thus a lowered quality of life and an earlier death.
You do realize that Corey Booker is a black man, right? I certainly don’t disagree with you calling him a pig, a very greedy pig, but racist? Not really. Aside from him being a black man, his stance effects ALL Americans who are being gouged by drug companies. And all thanks to greedy politicians, like Booker, who rather feather their own nests rather than do the job they were elected to do.
There is a price to importing cheap drugs. #1) there are safety issues, which is what Cory Booker talked about. #2) there is the problem that if drug companies cannot make money when they find a hit drug, then they aren’t going to spend money on the 999 drugs that didn’t work while searching for the 1 in 1000 that does work. You are taking away the incentive to search for new drugs.
What would be better would be if they could somehow cap the amount of money that drug companies spend on non-research expenditures. Sometimes the drug companies only spend 10% of their money on research. Part of this is letting the government dictate better prices on drugs for government run programs (anything getting money or subsidies from the federal government)
Drugs from Canada are as safe as drugs bought in the US. What you need to do, rather than buy drugs from us (which we buy from the same companies selling them to you) is negotiate better deals.
Face facts: pharma is sold globally, but prices vary widely for the same products. Americans pay more because they’re getting ripped off.
You obviously know very little about industry parroting their propaganda. We (you, I and the rest of us US taxpayers) pay our pharmaceuticals twice. We pay on the front end by funding the bulk of the research into new drug discoveries and then we pay again on the back end to get access to the drug. The investments from industry are almost solely focused on the commercialization of those discoveries that we paid for.
“Historically, the largest government investments in basic drug discovery research have been made by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has also contributed to the discovery stage by taking on some relatively high-risk biologic projects. Moreover, in part as a result of the public’s impatience with the slow pace of the discovery process, state governments are increasingly taking the initiative in this area. One such example is the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a state agency established in 2005 by the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, which provides grants and loans for stem cell research and facilities at California’s research institutions and universities. Another example is the Texas Cancer Initiative, under which state funds are dedicated to cancer research conducted in Texas. Beyond these public investments, private foundations are also taking a significant financial interest in the discovery process, facilitating progress by funding research in their particular areas of interest.
At the other end of the continuum is late-stage development, which is funded primarily by pharmaceutical companies or venture capitalists with some collaborative support from government sources, such as NIH. Such partnerships are critical in the transition from proof of concept to clinical development.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK50972/
As for safety:
“Controversy related to the importation of medications from Canada by U.S. consumers has sometimes raised concerns about the safety of these drugs. These fears are unfounded; in fact, the Canadian approval and manufacturing processes are very similar to U.S. processes. Both countries have pharmaceutical-related standards, laws, and policies to ensure that chemical entities marketed for human diseases and conditions are safe and effective. The process of taking a new drug from the laboratory to the pharmacy shelves includes:”
http://www.drugguide.com/ddo/view/Davis-Drug-Guide/109517/all/Canadian_and_U_S__Pharmaceutical_Practices
Wonderful post! Thanks for the information. Love that Pharma like all “good ” (sic) industries steals from the public sector and then re-packages and sells it back— ahhhhh capitalism
“you are taking away the incentive to search for new drugs.”
Bullshit and bullshit on your cap, too. Where does your paycheck come from? I have a few guesses.
You read the part where drugs in Canada cost less right? there doesn’t appear to be a problem with incentive here. We have access to drugs, we can afford drugs, and we develop drugs. I am not saying that low prices can’t harm drug development, but you passed that threshold ages ago and can’t even see it in the rear view mirror. Here are a few charts.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-drug-prices/
Your cost is higher than every other country except sovaldi which is 2nd WITH the discount. The other countries prices don’t include discounts btw.
But hey perhaps you think America is exceptional in some way; different from everywhere else in the world. If that is the case then maybe america does deserve the high drug prices.
1. I believe the amendment was actually about drug RE importation. So drugs manufactuered in the US and sold by approved pharmacies in Canada and possibly other countries are the same drugs that we buy here. But we pay much more for the same thing. 2. Other countries negotiate with the drug companies but our government does not. Congress has legislated that Medicare cannot negotiate drug prices, so we pay more than everyone else. We are being misled by our ‘leaders’.
Drug companies have a racket going with their Men in Washington. They spend years of expensive, slow research making gargantuan salaries, with bloated administrations and plush facilities, and then simply dictate to Washington what Medicaid/Medicare (and now, insurance companies) must pay for the drugs in order for them to stay whole. As long as the drug doesn’t cause safety problems, and “might” in some cases help, it is passed and mandated. This is why we have so many anti-depressant/ anti-anxiety drugs that are chemically close to cocaine being subsidized (or mandated on big employers) to provide. The drug companies swear they aren’t addictive, and yet by reading untold personal stories, we know they are. Big Business LOOOOOVVVEES Big Government and Big Regulations, because they make tons of money and stomp out the smaller competition by it.
That’s an old saw dude. It was one of Pharmas’ best debating slogans against lowering prices- thought up by their advertising firm.
Did you know they get most of their new drug formulas from Americas’ top University scientist- basically free research paid for by the US Gov’t. It works by them giving sizable grants to Universities and then the U’ department shares their findings for a percentage of the profits. It’s a win win. The University gets paid three times: corporate donations, a percentage of the successful findings and a grant from the gov’t to do scientific research. The company gets patent contro- but not always- depends on the companies investment.
I suppose cheating their way into extending their patent rights beyond 27 years is cool too? You know- when the tweak the formula and the call it some totally new drug, deserving of its’ own patent.
I thought a lot of drug companies’ R&D is subsidized by taxpayers. Correct me if I am wrong.
Do you realize that drug companies spend far more money on advertising than they do on research? The crazily high prices that Americans pay for prescription drugs has nothing to do with getting back the money spent on research and development. It has everything to do with politicians like Booker who accept large amounts of money from Big Pharma.
Also, if you realize that Canadians get their drugs from American stock, you will realize that the safety issue that Booker speaks of is nothing but a smoke screen for him to hide behind.
And I find that advertising to be absolutely nuts. How many people actually push their doctors to put them on some drug they see advertised, instead of just trusting their doctor? The airwaves are absolutely flooded with ads, many for conditions that affect a relatively tiny part of the population. Their return on investment has to be remarkably shitty. But I don’t get why anyone watches ads anymore anyway, they as they have this thing called a DVR, so I am probably the wrong person to comment.
there are all kinds of things wrong with these arguments but in the most broad terms, it’s a little difficult to swallow the Law of the Free Market incantations when the domestic market is being held hostage.
I guess the fact that there is a drug ad, sometimes two or three, every fifteen minutes on TV has nothing to do with the cost. Bulls**t! You must work for a drug company? The drug companies have turned doctors into drug dealers with their perks. Ask your doctor if xxx is right for you. What bulls**t! I had a favorable opinion of Booker until now. I suppose he’s just another bought and paid for politician, just like the rest.
Cory Booker is going to try to run for President and he’s the worst. Looking forward to linking this if he makes it into the running.
Yes, we need to begin keeping track of all of the shitty things these a-holes do NOW. Every time they sell out the American people for the sake of big $–voters need to be reminded of this when the time comes.
Good people die while Cory Booker and friends get rich.
The Dem Nays:
Oops. How did Alexander get in there?
Fungibility? Pedinska would know.
Ha!
I see what y’all are doing here {giving squinty side eye}.
Good story Zaid and David. These assholes shouldn’t be able get away with this crap without being called out on it. Appreciating your efforts.
Ditto! Big fan of these two. And this is beautifully written.
Thank you Mr. Salzmann for all the fine research you have provided to help us understand what is going on with these odious democrats.
Traitors to the people. They deserve nothing less than their heads on pikes.
Why Coons (DE)?
Oh, it’s a tragedy that some Democrats did the wrong thing here. But the comments are typical — when 3/4 of Democrats do the right thing and 3/4 of Republicans do the wrong thing, people rag on the Democrats!
Still, it is a great surprise and perhaps a hopeful sign to see even one Republican do something the others don’t. I have long said they ought to get dippy uniforms like fast food workers because they are all just hired hands doing what they’re told. How did some of them go off the reservation this time and vote differently than others? If the Republicans could be disunited, then at least *potentially* something decent could pass. That is, if the Democrats for once did were not disunited.
Without the back stabbing democrats, the measure would have won 58-40. I would call that a significant democratic party fuck up. You call it unjustified whining. The republicans will do what they do. Same old story–the democratic outrage machine in full force while the democrats get away with being complicit in republican bullshit.
But this guy isn’t some random senator who doesn’t have much power. He’s one of the people the DNC is seriously considering running for President in 2020. It’s not okay that the people who are supposedly the “big names” of the party stab us in the back like this and then ask for our support later because at least they’re not Republicans.
The DNC shouldn’t even EXIST by 2020. Both parties need to die NOW–and be replaced with true parties of the people.
That’s a non-answer. “True parties of the people” = nothing.
Back in reality, we have to overtake the Democratic party step by step, and move it from better-than-the-GOP to really progressive. That will be slow and hard, but at least it’s possible. Whereas “true parties of the people” is a pipe dream.
Then what is the point of our democracy? Yeah you’re real progressive lol
I agree. cool thing PG is that the Democratic Socialists not-a-party organization allows for both (trying to overtake the Dem party and having a space to grow something else that can’t just be shut down), it’s a smart way out of the dilemma. I think everybody should check them out; I haven’t decided whether to join or not yet but am leaning toward it.
first step is to torpedo the careers of sellouts like these dinos. if they won’t learn from clinton’s defeat, they need to be taught the same lesson.
Parties that truly represent the people, then, rather than the corporations. Does that carry more appeal for you, semantically? And I disagree with you–I think the Democratic party needs to be trashed, and replaced with new parties. Republicans as well. Preferably eliminating each and EVERY sellout who currently occupies an elected position at the moment.
I wouldn’t say they won’t exist, but the Trump privatization drives, disastrous war and related pending collapse of the U.S. may tend to make the parties irrelevant. Politics by then may have more to do with what oligarch you find yourself aligned with than a generic sense of principles.
Wnt makes a variant of the “she really won the popular vote” bit here. Yeah whatever, stooge.
Making sure nothing good happens is the major job of the democrats, and just enough of them are regulalrly on hand to ensure that happens, and making excuses for them means you’re a good one too.
I oddly enough find myself a democrat and I’m kind of glad. I hope some other people who registered just to vote Sanders stuck around. We hate you and we want your party. False friends really are worse than declared enemies.
Please don’t equate Republicans with Native Americans (“off the reservation”!!??). It is an insult to Native Americans.
“… when 3/4 of Democrats do the right thing and 3/4 of Republicans do the wrong thing, people rag on the Democrats!”
thank you, sir, may i have another?
Sickening. Is there any hope at all for the 99%?
Yeah, my crappy “Democratic ” senator Bennet was one of those who voted against those he represents.
We’ve seen the Corey Booker movie before at all levels of government.
If the Democrats want to continue down the path towards suicidal extinction, then this is the way to do it.
Both corporate parties need to be replaced by new parties of the people.
This is why the Democrats lose. They think people are either too dumb to notice or too scatter brained to remember. Booker would be able to raise money from constituents if he started to stand up for them.
Can you provide the full list of the 12 Democrat senators who helped kill this bill, please?
Here is complete voting list:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=1&vote=00020#position
And graphically:
http://caucus99percent.com/comment/232227#comment-232227
In total, 25% of Senate democrats voted against Bernie’s measure. Time and time again, the democrats fail the working classes–shit fail more than that. I guess this is what democrats want according to Pelosi–no change at all. Oh look that way!!!!! Putin!!!!
The same thing would happen if Trump crunched all the healthcare numbers and realized that expanding Medicare would be the cheapest way to cover everyone with the highest quality of care.
The Democrats would oppose it because it would mean financial death to all their insurance corporate contributors.
Greenwald got it right at one level. Democrats will reflectively oppose anything Trump proposes even if it is a good thing. And add in your point, there will be democrats who will subvert those good things anyway for their corporate masters.
Of course, this is precisely what the GOP has done to Obama for 8 years. Bottom line, the corporate stooges in the government of both parties are playing this game and it is why we ended up with two such horrible candidates, while one with real integrity, Bernie Sanders, cannot even get a decent bill passed.
Democrats will NOT reflexively vote against whatever Trump proposes just to be contrarian. That is simply a ridiculous statement. And to suggest that Trump would have any interest in “crunching numbers” for the benefits of Americans in general? It’s almost as if you have no idea who Trump is.
Occasional heroic acts notwithstanding, Booker is already trash for associating with Mark “Dumb Fucks” Zuckerberg. This only cements that.