UPDATE S 1082 MASSIVE BETRAYAL BY SENATORS

[Guest guest]

OBVIOUSLY NOT REPRESENTING CONSTITUENTS. ONLY BIG PHARMA !!

 

Americans betrayed by Democratic senators with surprise amendment

that protects Big Pharma monopoly

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

 

Consumers expecting a miracle in the Senate that would end Big

Pharma's monopoly and the FDA-enforced drug racket now operating in

the United States will be sorely disappointed by yesterday's events.

Fifteen Democratic senators (led by Sen. Edward Kennedy) abandoned

consumer interests and joined a Republican-organized amendment that

would protect Big Pharma's stranglehold over U.S. consumers by

blocking the importation of prescription drugs from other countries.

 

The amendment in question is Senate Amendment 1010: " To protect the

health and safety of the public, " sponsored by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-

MS) as an amendment to S.1082, the FDA reauthorization bill. The

short text of the amendment requires that the Secretary of Health

and Human Services block all importations of medications unless HHS

can certify to Congress that such imports, " pose no additional risk

to the public's health and safety. " HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, of

course, has no interest in allowing free market conditions to

threaten Big Pharma profits, thus the outcome of this amendment is

obvious: It effectively overturns the Dorgan amendment that would

have allowed Americans to save billions of dollars on prescription

drugs by purchasing them from outside the United States under " free

market " conditions.

 

Fifteen Democratic senators voted in favor of this amendment to

defend Big Pharma's monopoly. Those senators are are: Max Baucus,

Evan Bayh, Maria Cantwell, Thomas Carper, Edward Kennedy, John

Kerry, Mary Landrieu, Frank Lautenberg, Blanche Lincoln, Robert

Menéndez, Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, Ben Nelson, Jay

Rockefeller, and Kenneth Salazar.

 

Thirty-three Republicans also supported the bill, which passed 49-40

(11 not voting). The Republican senators who voted for this

amendment are: Lamar Alexander, Robert Bennett, Kit Bond, Jim

Bunning, Richard Burr, Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, Thad Cochran,

Norm Coleman, Bob Corker, John Cornyn, Michael Crapo, Elizabeth

Dole, Pete Domenici, Michael Enzi, Lindsey Graham, Judd Gregg, Chuck

Hagel, Orrin Hatch, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Johnny Isakson, Jon Kyl,

Richard Lugar, Mel Martinez, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Pat

Roberts, Arlen Specter, Ted Stevens, John Sununu, Craig Thomas,

George Voinovich, and John Warner.

 

 

Big Pharma owns the U.S. Senate

What's clear from this vote is that the majority of U.S. Senators do

not represent the interests of the people. Backed by Big Pharma

reelection campaign money, our lawmakers are acting to directly

enforce a Big Pharma monopoly at the expense of the public. While

the exact same medications are available from Canada, Europe and

other countries for nearly half the price paid in the United States,

U.S. consumers will continue to be forced to pay monopoly prices on

their medications thanks to the great U.S. Senate sellout to Big

Pharma.

 

It's not just consumers who are financially harmed by this drug

price fixing scheme, either. Many corporations, city governments and

states are headed to near-certain financial bankruptcy in large part

due to monopoly pricing on prescription drugs. The near-collapse of

the U.S. auto industry, for example, is largely due to health care

costs. General Motors spends more on health insurance than it does

on steel. The cost of doing business in the United States is now

unbearable for many companies, and they're fleeing to other

countries where health care costs are a fraction of U.S. costs.

 

Fifteen Democratic and thirty-three Republican senators believe U.S.

citizens and businesses should be forced to pay the highest prices

in the world for medications. Monopoly market conditions must be

upheld. Keeping Americans diseased, uninformed and financially

exploited is simply too profitable to walk away from. And corporate

control over the U.S. Congress has never been stronger. It is no

exaggeration to say that, with few exceptions, lawmakers no longer

vote according to the interests of the citizens they claim to

represent. Rather than casting votes that actually protect the

public interest, lawmakers now spend their time determining which

votes will get them reelected. That, of course, requires money, and

corporations have lots of that -- especially when they run FDA-

enforced monopoly price fixing schemes that clearly qualify as

crimes under existing anti-trust legislation.

 

 

Democracy is failing

When the government of any nation forgets its people and, instead,

focuses on defending and promoting the interests of powerful

corporations, you no longer have a Democracy. Instead, you have a

Plutocracy (see Wikipedia entry on Plutocracy), where the wealthy

elite control the political process and use laws to further enrich

themselves at the expense of the public.

 

It's an accurate description of what's happening in America today:

The public is no longer represented by the Senate, the FDA, the USDA

or the EPA. Instead, each of these governmental bodies (legislative

for the Senate, executive for the other departments) is now

operating in the interests of corporations. Campaign finance reform,

of course, is impossible under such circumstances, since no

corporate-controlled Senate will ever vote to cut itself off from

corporate money. Thus, the only outcome of the situation is a

further erosion of the integrity of U.S. legislative processes to

the point where the public is impoverished, the nation is bankrupt,

and the corporations run the government.

 

We are approaching that scenario now, and this latest vote by

Senators to protect and even expand the Big Pharma monopoly over

U.S. consumers is a glaring example of what happens when politicians

sell out their constituents and kowtow to the influence of powerful

corporations. Big Business and Big Government are now merging to

become a unified system of financial exploitation of the people. The

corporations financially rape the people, and the government keeps

it legal.

 

Please note that senators of both major parties -- Democratic and

Republican -- joined in this most recent mass betrayal of U.S.

consumers. While Republicans certainly have stronger ties to drug

companies, when push comes to shove Democrats will sell out their

constituents just the same. The pocketbook of no citizen is safe

when Congress is in session, and any voter who thinks one political

party or another is going to come to the rescue and actually protect

the interests of consumers is hopelessly naive.

 

 

Action items: Here's what you can do now

The battle over S.1082 is not yet over. All these recent debates are

over amendments to the bill. The bill itself has not yet come to a

floor vote (but it will soon). You still have a chance to help stop

this bill!

 

If you're a U.S. citizen, call your Senator now (click here for a

list of Senators' phone numbers) and tell them you oppose S.1082,

the FDA reauthorization bill. If you have a chance, tell them you

support the " Grassley amendments " and a free market for medications.

 

We can still have a huge impact in stopping this bill from becoming

law. But it will require more action on your part to help protect

American consumers from financial exploitation by the white-collar

criminals running medicine today. We must do the job the U.S. Senate

refuses to do. We must take action to protect ourselves from the

monopolists, pharma con men and corrupt regulators who are trying to

keep Americans trapped in a system of medicine that will ultimately

destroy our collective health and bankrupt our nation. There is

nothing these criminals will not attempt in order to protect their

profits and territory, and right now they've pulled out all the

stops to buy off senators and keep their medical monopoly intact.

 

Only a massive grassroots campaign of opposition can save us from a

corporate-controlled plutocracy (or kleptocracy, if you will).

Please join me in taking action now to stop S.1082 from becoming

law. Saving America from itself is now up to the people, and the

people alone. Lawmakers have rendered themselves incapable of making

decisions that support any real future for our nation. The U.S.

economy is now a carcass of cash (debt, actually), and lawmakers are

simply divvying up the spoils to their Big Pharma buddies.

 

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About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate with a

passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal

and planetary health He has authored more than 1,500 articles and

dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics,

reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives

and improving personal health around the world. Adams is a trusted,

independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees

whatsoever to write about other companies' products. He's also the

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NewsTarget email subscriptions. Adams also serves as the executive

director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer

protection group, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography,

Pilates and adult gymnastics. He's also author of numerous health

books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several

consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't

Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He

also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and

HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access

to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over

medicines, genes and seeds. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams'

personal health statistics and mission statements are located at

www.HealthRanger.org