S1082 Update - Senate Stabs Americans In the Back

For approximately four days Americans lived in a delusional state that they may soon pay drug prices the same as every other country in the civilized world. Euphoria over breaking the Big Pharma monopoly turned to disgust as the chameleon, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), changed sides and lead a contingency of Democrats against fellow Democrats lead by Byron Dorgan (D-ND). By passing the Cochran amendment the Dorgan amendment is poisoned and will no longer be effective. Maybe Democrats are now learning what Republicans have known for some time – you can't trust Kennedy.

Last Thursday, on a cloture vote of 63-28 (all 28 votes were Republicans), Senators voted to limit debate on the Dorgan amendment and thus prevent a filibuster. Many took this to mean that Dorgan had the strength, based on strong support in the Democratic Party and enough Republicans who wanted lower drug prices for Americans, to actually allow reimportation of drugs from other countries. This makes complete sense to all Americans, unless they work for Big Pharma. It now appears Kennedy's pretended support for the cloture vote was simply to limit debate time spent on his entire bill – since the longer it is debated the greater the number of Big Pharma loopholes come to light.

Jumping ship with Kennedy were 14 other Democrats, 4 Republicans, and 1 Independent: Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Cantwell (D-WA), Carper (D-DE), Kerry (D-MA), Landrieu (D-LA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Lincoln (D-AR), Menendez (D-NJ), Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), Nelson (D-NE), Rockefeller (D-WV), Salazar (D-CO), Coleman (R-MN), Coburn (R-OK), Corker (R-TN), Martinez (R-FL), Specter (R-PA), and Lieberman (ID-CT).

Pressures applied by Kennedy, along with Big Pharma's wallet, was all it took to cause Americans to be raped of 50 billion dollars over the next ten years.
Noteworthy in this group of Senator's failing the American public is Norm Coleman (R-MN). He could be seen grinning from ear to ear following his vote, while getting patted on the back by fellow Republicans. Coleman has been in favor of drug reimportation for some time, helping Minnesota set up one of the most progressive programs in the country to import drugs from Canada. Who bought his vote? He certainly wasn't representing the citizens of his state.

The battle on S1082 rages on. Kennedy is doing everything he can to force a final vote on S1082 before too many Big Pharma loopholes are closed. Big Pharma obviously owns the Senate. And the Senate is hammering the citizens of this country in the pocketbook. Demand your senators vote no on S1082 – it is a fake safety bill that will lock in the Big Pharma monopoly on health care for the next 50 years.