Dana Milbank -- President Obama writes a new health reform prescription

One more item added to what candidate Obama said on the campaign trail about prescription drugs (see bolded paragraph) and what President Obama who cut a deal with drug companies has to say. No wonder Obama's poll numbers are falling so rapidly as he continues to do a 180 from what he said on the campaign trail.

When we first heard about Obama's ties to radicals like Communist Frank Davis who was his mentor, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Louis Farrakhan, and others we suspected he would lurch to the left if he was elected. That said, his lurch to the left is much farther left then we even predicted.

Now we have his 180 on prescription drugs which once again hurts senior citizens the hardest, the question is if AARP will get off the dime and defend their seniors or will Obama's friend who heads AARP once again take the side of Obama against seniors. We hear crickets chirping as AARP continues to sell out seniors.

Thanks to Dana Millbank for writing this because a lot of crickets are chirping in the mainstream media about this Reid healthcare fiasco as they continue to cover for the White House and Democrats.

Dana Milbank -- President Obama writes a new health reform prescription
16 December 2009

If you needed proof that Democrats will resort to almost any means to achieve federal control of health care, Tuesday night’s vote to prevent the re-importation of drugs should provide ample evidence.

One of the great frustrations of the American medical system is that pharmaceutical companies charge more for the same drugs in the U.S. than they do in foreign countries. It’s also been a cornerstone liberal cause for 15 years.

The reasons – the bargaining power of single-payer systems, patent protections, etc. – all fade when a senior citizen hears he can get his $200-a-month pills for $75 a month on Canada. A coalition of 56 conservatives and liberals joined to seek an amendment to the president’s health bill that would have allowed re-importation of drugs and the Obama administration and Democratic leaders killed it.

Drug companies are the biggest backers of the president’s plan, which will provide new customers and more subsidies for the existing ones. They’ve put more than $100 million into selling the Obama plan -- unsuccessfully, it seems, as today’s Post/ABC poll shows a new high of 51 percent opposition even with the survey’s customary tailwind for Obama.

The industry has agreed to non-specific future concessions that the president says will net $80 billion over the first decade of the plan. What they get in return, aside from more subsidized customers, is protection from generic makers and re-importation.

Liberals may be willing to trade specific demands for dominion over health care, but the folks at home must be getting pretty grossed out by now.

If not, they will be after reading Milbank’s sketch.

“On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine. "We'll tell the pharmaceutical companies 'thanks, but no, thanks' for the overpriced drugs -- drugs that cost twice as much here as they do in Europe and Canada," he said back then.

On Tuesday, the matter came to the Senate floor -- and President Obama forgot the "no, thanks" part. Siding with the pharmaceutical lobby, the administration successfully fought against the very idea Obama had championed. “

Source: Dana Milbank, Washington Post