And he wants to make sure that the pharmaceutical companies understand that, too. The House Energy Chair intends to retroactively remove what Waxman calls a ‘windfall’ involving Medicare D drug charges, and never mind what either the President or PhRMA thinks:
Drug makers contend they have already worked out a 10-year, $80 billion cost-savings deal with the White House and crucial Senate gatekeepers on the trillion-dollar health care overhaul. The industry says that trying to add Mr. Waxman’s provision could scuttle that agreement.
Putting aside the actual merits of the argument for a moment – I (and Hot Air) may have excellent reasons to assume that a Democrat posturing about ‘windfall profits’ is simply posturing, but it’s still an assumption – it’s instructive to see how little a powerful House Democrat fears the wrath of the White House on this issue. Then again, this is what happens when you’re a President who hands off responsibility for a bill in the first place; the people who do the work naturally end up deciding that their opinions on its final form are more relevant than yours, and unless you have the ability to do something about it they’re going to show little reluctance in showing public defiance. Given that the President just hit 50% on Gallup, and lacks any real experience in leading people who don’t want to be led, I’m not surprised that Waxman is doing this.
And this is why people say “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Cliche, yes, but cliches exist for a reason.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to Moe Lane.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
an agreement with a Democrat is about as...
JLenardDetroit (Diary) Thursday, August 27th at 4:34PM EST (link)well… worthless as… finish the sentence however you wish… We all know it is just a convenient temporary agreement that Democrats will immediately backtrack on first opportunity to stick it to the Drug co’s.
Regards from NoMoTown (the MOTORlessCITY)
“Liberals, looking to do for? America what they’ve done for? Detroit! which is DESTROY IT!”
“I think, therefore I am Conservative”
“Conservative by choice, Republican by necessity”
“You can lead a Liberal to the Truth/Facts, but you cannot make them THINK!”
“Romney [No, not my first choice] does NOT have a MORMON problem. He has a, far too many Americans; these days; are MORONS problem!”
Follow @JLenardDetroit
(RS:Help) (JLD) (Hollyweird) (Brain-deads) (SPIN-cycle) (Obamaocare) (Party of kNOw) (Conservatism) (TEApeats) (respectful) (message) (Warning: Children Will Die!!)
Heil “O” Hell No Obamao is NOT MY PRESIDENT! “No U won’t”
I want “O” to FAIL (here, here, & whole Diary (Ofail) here, is why)
“The first Liberal was Satan” – a Rush caller (other Quotes)
Another reason
cosmicgnome (Diary) Thursday, August 27th at 6:04PM EST (link)Another reason for a “more deliberative approach” to a major overhaul of our way living. And another reason to slow down the hurry up offense. This is the structure of our country let’s take our time.Old adage: “people spend more time planning their vacation than they do their lives”, comes to mind.
re Another reason
livefreenh Friday, August 28th at 7:04AM EST (link)@cosmic: another thing is that people are willing to pay more for a haircut than for a doctor visit.
I have a friend who was telling me that she paid “only” $75 for a haircut and style, and a few minutes before, was complaining that her co-pay is now $20 for an annual physical. She said that she is going to go every two years from now on.
Damn pharmaceutical companies!!!
Well Big Pharma
Leopard1996 (Diary) Thursday, August 27th at 6:16PM EST (link)See what you get when you cut a deal with avowed socialists. You get screwed.
Now maybe then can learn the lesson and not try to get in bed with these douches, so that they can make a transfer of wealth profit.
“The accumluated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout, “Save Us!”….and I’ll look down and whisper, “No”…The Watchmen
Patent Reform Necessary To Help Big Pharma
americanmale Thursday, August 27th at 6:54PM EST (link)You know, if we could extend generational patents to these guys and at the same time, use that friggin worthless international civilian court to assist in global patent reform and enforcement, i bet we could really get costs to come down.
Give big pharma 75 years to recoup their investment. That way, they can decrease the price significantly….and because the reform is “global”, they can further reduce price because they then won’t have to worry about the generics.
I say to victor goes the spoils. You create the wonder drug, you win. Just keep the retail price low while you recoup your investment.
If you’re an american company, we’ll support you by guarding against some foreigner sticking a little blue pill in his pocket, throwing it under a mass spectrometer to figure out the colonels secret recipe, and selling it on the market as a generic or a knockoff.
Our kids work in big pharma, they’re little biochem engineers who should make a good salary. Their earnings should not be limited by socialism rule.
You don't even have to go that far...
vettepilot (Diary) Thursday, August 27th at 11:44PM EST (link)If you changed the timeline so that the patent clock starts ticking when the drug is approved or hits the market, the manufacturers would instantly earn another 10-13 years to leverage their successful drugs to finance the numerous failures and future research. As it currently stands, the patent must be filed at the inception of the compound which starts the 20 year patent expiration clock.
Unfortunately, under the current system, the drugs that solve the most complicated problems are the ones that are most negatively impacted… These compounds typically take much longer to get to market as their clinical trials are more complex. This means that they may have as little as 2-3 years on the market before the generics are allowed to be sold. This can also skew the market away from creating treatments for complicated issues (not that they aren’t ALL complicated issues) and toward producing simpler, less necessary products that will get through clinical faster.
Another problem with the current patent system is that it dis-incentivizes extended clinical trials. Every day that a clinical trial drags on is a day of revenue that the pharma company loses to the generic market. Change the clock to start at FDA approval and you instantly encourage the drug companies to do more in-depth studies by removing the financial penalties for doing so.
And finally, generics don’t have to be the same either; all that’s required is “bioequivalence.” This can create problems because many times doctors are not nearly as familiar with the side-effects and interactions of generics as they are with the name brands.
Don't Make Deals With The Devil...
DavidSage (Diary) Thursday, August 27th at 7:10PM EST (link)..you’ll never come out ahead. This deal has blown up in their face.
Industries were so scared of Obama when he was elected, and it was a prisoner’s dilemma. Big Phrama thought it was in their interest to come to the table first, and sell out everyone else. What these idiots didn’t realize is if Obama gets universal health care, he will have a green light to take over the drug industry,.
I hope Republicans remember how Big Pharma sold them out when they come groveling back. I also hope industry leaders smell blood in the water, and decide to stand up to Obama and take a more confrontational role instead of trying to survive by appeasement. My guess is with Obama’s number’s sinking, companies will no longer be lining up to pay tribute to The One.
They can't govern.
archer52 Thursday, August 27th at 7:42PM EST (link)I’ve said this before, my ex partner was a econ expert, as well as, a top flight detective. When it was apparent Obama was going to win (somewhere around the time McCain was wandering around D.C. like an Alzheimer patient trying to “save the economy”) my buddy said, “Don’t worry they can’t govern.”
He was right. What you are seeing is a set of competing agendas all scrambling for their piece of the cash pie.
I speak to this on my site:
http://truthandcommonsense.com/2009/08/23/why-socialize-america-lets-play-the-agenda-game/
Can you imagine that one of our last hopes in saving the republic relies on the corruption and greed of our politicians?!
Somewhere Thomas Jefferson is doing a Homer Simpson head slap and a DOOH! And Franklin is nodding over to Paine and saying, “It wasn’t like I didn’t warn them.”
Everybody knows
10ksnooker (Diary) Thursday, August 27th at 7:51PM EST (link)The Joker lies … didn’t you see Dark Knight?
The Cowards get eaten, too.
Cogburn (Diary) Thursday, August 27th at 9:31PM EST (link)Sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but they still get eaten. Pharma will get screwed in the end…
Good. Serves them right.
archer52 Thursday, August 27th at 10:37PM EST (link)They should be throwing money at anyone willing to stand up. If all free market companies banded together they could fund a ton of campaigns in swing states and take out dozens of politicians.
You could bet your bottom dollar Reid and Dodd would be scrambling up to them saying, “Hey guys, uh, we are sorry. It was all a big mistake. Besides it was THEM not us. Ok, Ok? We are buddies right? Come on, we were just kidding! It was a joke, a joke! Can’t you take a joke? Heehee?”
Handing off responsibility?
livefreenh Friday, August 28th at 6:58AM EST (link)Regarding “when you’re a President who hands off responsibility for a bill in the first place”, don’t forget that it is not the place of the President to originate a bill. Or otherwise stated, “he is good at telling other people how to do their job, but fails at doing his own.”
Article I, Sec. 7, US Constitution: “Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it…”
But Obama is a constitutional scholar; he should already know that. Maybe this would be a good time for someone to tell HIM how to do HIS job.
RTFM, Obama. RTFM.
IT'S TIME..
satireworks14 Friday, August 28th at 9:05AM EST (link)The mystery (and the political orgasms) are over.
Even the dumbest of the dumb now realize Obama is not a leader, has no interest in doing what is helpful for the citizens of the United States and he continues to think he is starring is some sort of “Reality Series” in which the person with the most BS and on-camera time wins.
Nancy is a nut case. Why didn’t Obama even give that a thought before he failed to lead from his first day in office? He was still living in the dream world the media had provided as they elected him in ’08 and course there was the need to go play golf…
America has never seen a bigger hypocrite in the office. The only thing that interrupts Obama’s time gift giving to the “Greenies” is his frequent breaks to kick back and light up a smoke.
It’s time the cameras were turned off. It’s time to enforce the rule on Lobbyists (that they stay across the street and are not allowed in the building). It’s time a cap of $1.00 was placed on campaign funds so it forces politicians to get back out into the trenches and listen to their constants. That other pesky little thing about pocketing left over campaign funds might need some adjusting too.
But more than anything else, it’s time for Americans to clean house in 2010, taking the responsibilty of elections much more seriously and then demanding their Constitution be upheld and their money spent with a lot more sanity.
We have over 250 slogans to chose from at http://SatireWorks.com. Is it any surprise our biggest seller these days is the one that says:
“Don’t Re-Elect Anyone”?
Craig
He's the Suit.
rec0n Friday, August 28th at 9:26PM EST (link)His job is to get lots of face time. It’s his best asset. The heavy lifting has been well organized, other than dealing with an unexpected uprising. Don’t minimize these people. We’re fighting hc, but there is much else going on, and it’s serious. Financial reform for instance, delegating power to the govt. to regulate or eviscerate financial institutions while the Fed’s being chaired by union bosses and Immelt. C & T is progressing largely un-covered by the media, and would have tremendous impact on America. Beck’s worried about a militia being formed that, imo, is largely in place. That’s just what comes immediately to mind, but there is more. DOJ, for instance:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/28/opinion/main5271530.shtml
“In the end more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.” –Edward Gibbon
The ‘responsibility’ is to fight. We need people like Newt and Issa in DC – lots of them. Strong, aggressive, and smart.
Waxmans been working on that since last
rec0n Friday, August 28th at 5:39PM EST (link)month, at least. He needs to be eliminated far more than Pelosi, but he doesn’t get the news coverage like she does, at least not on tv where they can see his face.
Here’s an article I read yesterday re: Waxmans efforts to make Absolutely Sure illegal immigrants were covered:
http://tiny.cc/0KE6s
And here’s an article that kind of highlights his track record in Medicaid:
http://tiny.cc/Kebar
Enjoy…
writeing congressional legislation
harvey Friday, August 28th at 7:16PM EST (link)When you are the President and you have the Apollo Alliance write the bills for you and then you turn them over to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to get them through the House and Senate no wonder you dont know whats in them.These people introduced these bills in the house(health care-cap and trade)AND GAVE THE CONGRESSMEN ONLY A LITTLE WHILE TO LOOK THROUGH THEM BEFORE THEY VOTED.Iam i the only one that sees the problem with this,how did they know that they were not voteing to do away with elections,or even worse what if the bill was to give authority over us to the U.N.Do you trust Pelosi and Obama and Reid, i sure dont.I think there is a name for what they did,if you vote on a bill without reading and understanding it to me that is treason.And there are a lot of guilty people in the Senate.I WANT TO KNOW . ……WHY..God Bless
Anyplace
cosmicgnome (Diary) Sunday, August 30th at 12:19PM EST (link)Guess this could go anyplace so I hope no protocol is broken. Take a look at Australia and their government health program. Current situation.
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/08/30/131675_gold-coast-news.html