What's Good For PhRMA is Good For America

Need a reason to be scared of the Baucus Health Care Plan?

The Pharmaceutical lobby will be spending 150 million dollars to support it:

According to the New York Times, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America will spend $150 million specifically boosting for the health care reform proposal introduced last week by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT).

PhRMA has already spent millions on ads supporting the idea of reform more generically. But now that Baucus has come forward with an industry friendly proposal of his own--one that's significantly less progressive than the other proposals in Congress--PhRMA's throwing it's weight specifically behind his plan.

Baucus will unveil a draft of his legislation this week, and begin hearings on it next week. His legislation will not include a public health insurance option.

I'm sure this is completely unrelated to the deal that the White House made with the pharmaceutical companies a few months back that would prevent any bill from lowering their obscene profits.

But we live in Rahm Emanuel's world, where it's better to have Pharma on board and not attacking the bill, regardless of what it takes to get them on our side. Personally I'd like to follow his strategy to it's logical conclusion where Democrats start putting their unconditional support behind whatever bills the Republicans propose. That way the Democrats get to look bi-partisan and the Rebuplicans get to enact their ideological agenda. Everybody wins!!!