Mark Warner of Virginia
and let's not forget Dianne Feinstein, of California, who abstained.
The INTERCEPT reports,
"The policy has widespread support among Americans: one Kaiser poll taken in 2015 found that 72 percent of Americans are in favor of allowing for importation. President-elect Donald Trump also campaigned on a promise to allow for importation."
Some of them made excuses that importing such drugs was not safe for Americans. The problem is, that's an echoing of the same argument Big Pharma makes. Bernie Sanders' according to USA Today,
""said he agrees the medicine should be safe, but he believes that can easily be accomplished.
"If we can import vegetables and fish and poultry and beef from all corners of the Earth, please don't tell me that we cannot bring in, from Canada and other major countries, name brand prescription drugs of some of the largest corporations in the world," he said. "That's a laughable statement.""
The INTERCEPT article added this perspective:
"A second amendment Wednesday, authored by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, would have allowed importation pending a safety certification, just like the previous laws passed on the subject. It also failed. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., used that amendment to claim on Twitter that he voted "to lower drug prices through importation from Canada," and Booker referred to the Wyden amendment in his statement as well. This is a well-worn tactic from opponents of importation to mislead their constituents, as they know such certification will never occur.The INTERCEPT points out that many of these Democratic senate sell-outs have received big bucks donations from Pharma. Cory Booker heads the list, with $267,338 in donations over a six year period. That's less than $45,000 a year. Think about it. If the pharmaceutical companies spent that much on every senator, annually, the budget would be $4.5 million a year. Pharma sales in the US in 2015 were just over $250 billion dollars. But remember, most of the senators were "bought" for less. That makes them lower budget, sell-out shills.The safety excuse is mostly a chimera, as most of the drugs that would be imported from Canada were originally manufactured in the United States; they're just cheaper there, because the Canadian government uses a review board and price negotiation to make drugs more affordable."
We-- the 99%, we the middle class, main street, we-- liberal and progressive independents-- need to take back the Democratic party. We need to replace sell-outs who do not represent their constituents' interests.
What's crazy is the money-- how cheaply a US senator can be bought-- assuming there's no illegal funding of Senator's relatives or vacation homes and the like.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
11
10
9
