Add it all up and you get this: In those three critical months, PhRMA and its member companies spent $40 million lobbying Congress. That's more than $3 million each week.
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The NPR article exposing these astronomical lobbying figures goes on to say that "'Patients Are Our First Concern;" if anyone reading this essay believes that statement to be truth, then why are they pouring so much money into Lobbying? Why are Canadian's allowed to purchase the same drugs that are offered to the American public at lower prices - and to demonstrate how effective their lobbying is, we only have to look at what is transpiring behind the scenes that effectively equates to huge profits for Big Pharma and an exorbitant cost to the American taxpayer.
The pharmaceutical lobbyist's have an agenda, and unfortunately - they are winning at every significant issue that could help to reign-in the soaring costs of health care. As reported by NPR, there are more people lobbying on this issue than there are members of Congress; furthermore, we all need to ask ourselves a question! Where does 40 million dollars in lobbying fees ultimately find its home? Campaign contributions to those that embrace their policies? Money carefully hidden and finding its way into a Congress that is so corrupt that it defies the imagination! We know damn good and well that it's not lunches and other innocuous practices, but is nothing more than a legalized form or bribery. Several important items that could help to tame our health care costs are now off the table; we all know that drug re-importation from Canada could save millions of dollars - but it's "off the table." One of the most vital elements in helping to curb soaring health care costs would be to allow the government to negotiate the cost of drugs - but like re-importation from Canada, that is also "off the table" which demonstrates that their 40 million dollars in lobbying fees were well spent, not for the "good of the patient and the taxpayer," but for the bottom-lines of the pharmaceutical companies that are in reality - the ones that are actually dictating the terms of Obama's health care reform.
When the government announced that Congress was going to bail out financial institutions, the same type of feeding frenzy occurred as Lobbyists from the financial sector descended on Congress like a swarm of locusts, devouring every semblance of true economic recovery and redirecting it to the coffers of America's financial institutions, and to make matters worse - another one of Obama's campaign promises went the way of many of his promises; broken and replaced with what the financial community wanted - relaxing lobbying requirements so they would have easier access to bribe Congress and further the economic destruction of the United States:
White House eases stimulus lobbyist restrictions
By Roxana Tiron
Posted: 07/25/09 01:25 PM [ET]In a significant change, the Obama administration will now allow lobbyists to meet and have telephonic discussions with government officials regarding economic recovery projects.
The lifting of the ban comes after K Street has cried foul for months and has challenged the White House on its restrictions.
In March, President Obama announced that government officials would not be allowed to consider the views of lobbyists regarding specific stimulus projects unless the requests are put in writing. The materials also had to be posted on an agency's website within three business days of receipt. Lobbyists have said that the policy was one more example of the administration's disdain for their industry.
Now, the just-revised rules will allow government personnel to accept meetings and calls from federally registered lobbyists on the implementation of stimulus projects. The head of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, issued a new guidance late Friday regarding the administration's communications with registered lobbyists about economic recovery funds. MORE
I have been going over President Obama's campaign promises in great detail, and in future essays, will outline where Obama has deceived the public and betrayed his "base" of grassroots activists that believed in "Yes We Can" and fell for his rhetoric, hook, line and sinker. It might be easier to find the campaign promises that he actually kept - if any exist, rather then detailing just how deep the Obama deception actually runs.
In my opinion, President Obama may pose a greater risk to the United States because unlike President Bush and his treasonous cohorts, millions of Americans still trust President Obama - where with President Bush, no one but die-hard Republicans, most of whom were Neo-conservatives and those who were profiting from his robbery of our nation saw through his deception (eventually), were wary of his motivations - and as a President, was viewed with distrust and disdain by most of the country. President Obama, with his "Velvet-Glove" approach and now weakening oratory skills still has the unbridled support of millions of Americans, and until they can begin to see through his deception, may pose a greater danger to America than Bush ever could have - and that is a greater danger to this nation than even the Bush administration posed because Obama understands that you can speak softly and humor his critics - something that an arrogant Bush/Cheney regime never fully understood.
President Obama's corporate sponsored health care plan will cost far more than has been revealed, and when we couple that with the damage incurred by the Bush administration - the nation may never be able to recover until we bring back our heavy and light manufacturing capability, an issue that President Obama nor any of his staff have the faintest clue of how to accomplish - and while I agree that we desperately need adequate health care, I sincerely believe that being employed is far more important than health care - especially when millions of Americans wonder how they will pay their rent or feed their families.
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