Posted on 08/29/2009 3:40:25 AM PDT by BradtotheBone
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that he was not bound by a controversial deal negotiated between the White House and pharmaceutical companies, telling thousands of Nevada voters on a conference call that “I have not agreed with anybody to do that.”
The drug industry told the White House this summer that it would cut future drug costs by $80 billion in exchange for assurances that any health care legislation would prevent the government from negotiating for lower drug prices. As a result of the deal, the industry is bankrolling an ad campaign touting Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
But Democrats in Congress have balked at the agreement.
“I’m a Democrat in the Senate, and I haven’t agreed,” Reid told a caller.
Instead of live in-person town hall meetings, which have been the subject of angry demonstrations that Reid and other Democrats have said are being orchestrated by opponents of their plans, Reid participated in a telephone town hall, which his aides said dialed about 50,000 residents throughout Nevada. Participants on the call were allowed to ask a question to the powerful majority leader, but there was no opportunity for follow-up questions.
The tone on the call, held moments before Reid left for Boston to attend the funeral of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, was civil. Reid reiterated his support for the so-called public option, but he insisted that it would compete along side private insurers and that it wouldn’t cost much. The GOP has said it would swallow private insurers and create a costly single-payer system.
Reid laid out a tough defense of the bill, arguing that it would reduce costs, increase access to insurance and put new rules on insurance companies to prohibit people from being denied coverage.
“There really is nothing to pay for,” Reid said of a public option. “It is an entity to set up to keep the insurance companies honest. There would be some small administrative costs.”
Reid said that if Democrats can't get bipartisan support, they would move the bill through the fast-track budget process, which cannot be filibustered. He said that is not their preference, but he predicted that three-quarters of the bill could be passed that way.
"Sen. Kennedy as you know is dead," he said, adding that with ailing West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd frequently absent, "We need Republican help, that’s why a bipartisan bill is important."
"If we can’t do a bipartisan bill, we’ll do a partisan bill – I don’t want to do that."
Reid, who faces a tough reelection next year, blamed the media for focusing on angry town halls rather than on the substance of the policy.
And he singled out Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Whip Jon Kyl, along with House Minority Leader John Boehner and Whip Eric Cantor, suggesting they were trying to sabotage Democratic efforts.
"The Republican leaders in the Senate – McConnell and Kyl – they don’t want to do health care reform. The Republican leaders in the House – Boehner and Cantor – have said they don’t want to do health care reform."
The GOP leaders say Democrats are advancing a costly government takeover of the health care industry.
“Sen Kennedy as you know is dead”
Just as this obamination health care bill should be.
Anyone think the Pharma’s learned anything from this?
Too bad the only way to "boycott" them is to import drugs from Canada. ;)
what is the matter with reid and the rest of them....they are making decisions that a sane person would never make...
It is ironic that this is the first thing I found when I searched "medicare fraud estimates":
"The numbers don’t lie: The federal government does not put its money where its mouth is in terms of fighting Medicare fraud.......• Kim Brandt, who leads Medicare’s anti-fraud efforts, said some estimate the agency loses up to $80 billion to fraud, though she thinks that number sounds too high. (The truth is, no one is sure. All they know is that the more they look the more they find, Brandt said.)"
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/apr/15/dig-more-medicare-fraud/
Our Gubmint has had decades to fix the fraud and waste within Medicare and Medicaid, but they will pile another monster bureaucracy on top of them, and the messiah Obama shall find cost savings by cutting the fraud and waste they have failed to cut for decades.
Trust them. It's true.
$80 Bill isn't even pocket change compared to the looting that's coming.
With any luck “dingy” harry will be carrying a shovel behind a circus elephant in his next line of work. This man repulses the senses.
A fact that would never stop a democrat from voting...
The Democrat lies keep coming and coming. Reid "doesn't want to do that", and yet that is exactly what he is threatening to do.
Reid is the frakking Senate Majority Leader. If he "doesn't want to do" something, it doesn't happen. So, his statement is pure rubbish.
If Reid were prone to speak truthfully, he would have said something like, "If we can't do a bipartisan bill, there will be no health care reform bill".
Or, more likely, "If we can't do a bipartisan bill, I'm going to shove a partisan bill down the throats of the American people. I'm really looking forward to that (ho ho ho, guffaw, drool)."...
not bound by a controversial deal negotiated between the White House and pharmaceutical companie
It is called ....seizing power...
Thanks for the ping.
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