Addicting Congress

Drug Companies' Lobbying Bribes

The prescription drug industry, using its connections and campaign cash, has deployed of an army of lobbyists making huge contributions to congressional members, and already have succeeded in blocking a comprehensive Medicare drug benefit that would have reined in sky-high drug costs.

The drug industry is spending vast sums on lobbying to hire well-connected former members of Congress and key staff to promote its financial interests before Congress. The American Congress has sold their soul to the devil....pure Greed. Overall, the drug industry spent $400 million from 1997 to 2009 to lobby officials in Congress and the executive branch. This amount does not include tens of millions more spent on television, radio and newspaper ads, direct mailings and telemarketing efforts. Tthe equivalent of one lobbyist for every two members of Congress, an astonishing rate of coverage.

One of the most powerful players in health care is a group called the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA. It represents just 32 brand-name drug companies, but it has so much influence that when Congress passes a bill, PhRMA almost always gets its way. One big reason why: PhRMA and its members have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress as lawmakers work to overhaul health care.

PhRMA and its member companies spent $40 million lobbying Congress. That's more than $3 million each week.

And PhRMA's CEO, the former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, has been out there touting the consortium's support for a health care overhaul. Did you just read that? Do you know what that is saying? A Congressman, which helped pass these bills, is now the CEO of PhRMA's. Outrageous! This is completely unethical.

When American colonists declared independence from England in 1776, they also freed themselves from control by English corporations that extracted their wealth and dominated trade. After fighting a revolution to end this exploitation, our country's founders retained a healthy fear of corporate power and wisely limited corporations exclusively to a business role. Corporations were forbidden from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other realms of civic society.

Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end. [read more]

It's not surprising to learn this, because the pharmaceutical industry for years has been one of the most effective and powerful lobbying outfits in Washington, and it explains why we have a lot of drug policies in the U.S. that don't look like drug policies in any other industrialized country.

If your familiar with Medicare, then you understand that today the government is empowered to negotiate how much it pays doctors, hospitals, laboratories. Anyone except pharmaceutical companies.

There's something else drug companies bought with that $40 million: People

Most of the drug companies that belong to PhRMA are running their own lobby shops as well, plus the biggest ones have also hired dozens of D.C. lobbying firms.

So think about it this way: There are far more people in Washington representing one party of the debate — the big drug companies — than there are members of Congress working on the health care bill.

Let me make my position clear so I don't get flooded with nasty emails or comments. I do not pass judgment on the merits of PhRMA's arguments, quite frankly, I do not understand enough to make a judgement, but rather to show just how much money and lobbying is going on behind the veil — Evidence....look at the winning streak in Congress and big pharma.

More than four out of five Americans think drug companies have too much influence over the Food and Drug Administration, and 84 percent believe that advertisements for prescription drugs with safety concerns should be outlawed. I wonder how many of these people use prescription drugs? I imagine all 84%...just stand in line at the pharmacy in a Target, Walmart, Walgreens, Rite Aid....America is on drugs.

The scientific community have made a major step forward in demonstrating that the immune system can be harnessed in the fight against cancer using a new drug. I think the scientific community sincerely believed that this was going to be the beginning of a new era in medicine...Two years later still not approved, WHY NOT? FDA!

The FDA is now so clearly the regulatory puppet of Big Pharma that it has proven itself unable to reform from within. It’s time for the U.S. public and its legislative representatives to revoke the power of authority over drug safety that has been granted to the FDA in monopoly fashion. It’s time to put the power of drug safety into the hands of people who actually care about safety, not those who benefit from drug sales. And it’s time to end the oppressive, Dark Ages reign of the U.S. Fraud and Drug Administration which is not only complicit in the deaths of literally hundreds of thousands of Americans, but which seems determined to continue its campaign of power and corruption, no matter what the cost in the American lives.

The FDA has also faced a series of scandals involving its failure to enforce many federal laws because it would negatively affect the profits of the wealthy companies that pay it hundreds of millions of dollars in “fees.” The appalling negligence has even been documented in a scathing congressional report that confirms the FDA allows companies that annually pay it more than $400 million in fees to compromise public safety. [source]

"China executed it's top FDA Official for accepting bribes, which is what Lobbyist do....Here is America we offer them bonuses, contributions....BRIBES - The FDA is fundamentally enept."

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