In case you missed this, the Obama administration made a deal with Big Pharma

I completely missed this one so maybe you did too.

Robert Reich has a blog post, saying these negotiations with the health insurance industry undermine democracy. But, let's cut to the chase:

Last week, after being reported in the Los Angeles Times, the White House confirmed it has promised Big Pharma that any healthcare legislation will bar the government from using its huge purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices. That's basically the same deal George W. Bush struck in getting the Medicare drug benefit, and it's proven a bonanza for the drug industry. A continuation will be an even larger bonanza, given all the Boomers who will be enrolling in Medicare over the next decade. And it will be a gold mine if the deal extends to Medicaid, which will be expanded under most versions of the healthcare bills now emerging from Congress, and to any public option that might be included. (We don't know how far the deal extends beyond Medicare because its details haven't been made public.)

Maybe all of those townhall disruptors aren't screaming about socialism. I'm now wondering if they are screaming about this major sell out?

Let's see, we have the Zombie banks getting hundreds of billions, wall street got their bonuses, now big Pharma gets more taxpayer dollars....you get a $4500 rebate and a whole new set of car payments (without a job).

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I understand the strategy but the tactic is weak.

Strategy is "divide and conquer". If you can get one of the big opponents to agree with you - great. The problem is, as with all the rest of the policies and "negotiations", they didn't get a good deal.

$80 billion over ten years is not enough. A congressional report says that made $8 billion after the last big giveaway to Big Pharma. I wonder if that was the basis for the agreement.

Obama Administration was giving up a lot including a lot of credibility and political capital with this move but they failed to exact an equally high price from Big Pharma.

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I don't think

They should be negotiating with them at all. Who runs the country? Lobbyists or the government?