Capitolism

Democrats Go to Bat for Big Pharma

By Christopher Hayes

Sebastian Jones catches some under-the-radar shenanigans from two house Democrats and a Republican on behalf of Big Pharma:

At a North Carolina town hall yesterday, the President went out of his way to mention a brewing legislative battle on Capitol Hill: the fight over how long to grant drug manufacturers monopolies on a new class of drugs called biologics and when to allow cheaper, generic alternatives.

The current proposed legislation--HR 1427 introduced by Representatives Waxman (D-CA) and Deal (R-GA)-- would grant biologics the same 5-year period of exclusivity traditional pharmaceuticals receive now and would limit a manufacturer's ability to get an extension of that monopoly, requiring, for example, a "significant therapeutic advance."

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July 30, 2009

Conservatives Should Propose Medicare Elimination

By Christopher Hayes

Today's the 44th anniversary of Medicare, the single payer health insurance program that provides care for millions of senior citizens. It is the nightmare come true! Forty-three million of our citizens groaning under the yoke of socialism! I kid of course. The program, while not without its flaws, has displayed significantly less cost inflation than private insurance, has lower administrative costs and very high satisfaction among its participants. It's so politically popular that when red-state elected representatives go to town halls they hear things like: "keep your government hands off my Medicare" (!) from angry constituents. Yes.

This has got me thinking: Republicans opposed Medicare when it was created. They hate socialized medicine, government-run health care and the public option now. So why don't they put their money with their mouths are and propose scrapping Medicare? Any bills like this been introduced? If not, why not? I seriously think every single conservative and Republican caught railing against government run healthcare needs to be asked if they support disbanding Medicare.

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July 30, 2009

What the Hell is Max Baucus Thinking !?!

By Christopher Hayes

The following comes from a reader and frequent correspondent. This is not someone with particularly progressive politics. In fact, he only very recently has come to identify as a Democrat. No radical lefty, he.

I don't get the democrats on this one. Even if Charles Grassley and Olympia Snowe vote for this deal, the Republicans will still run against it as the Obama/Pelosi plan. Why not stick to your guns, treat the problem from a parliamentary perspective, and put through a plan that you actually think is optimal. The current attempt won't protect their downside at all and may limit the upside. Very frustrating.

More than frustrating. Enraging.

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July 28, 2009

This Week On The Hill

By Greg Kaufmann

The House leaves town at the end of the week, the Senate one week later, and hopes for a health care bill before they vacate are all but nil. (Tell Congress to stick around and get the job done here.) They won't return until the second week of September, and meanwhile 14,000 people a day are losing their healthcare.

This week, Chairman Waxman continues negotiating with the conservative Blue Dog (pseudo)Democrats to try to get the House health care bill through his Energy and Commerce Committee. Even if the House could bring a bill to the floor for a vote, it probably won't until it knows where the Senate is headed. House Dems don't want to take a tough stand only to be left hung out to dry by Senate Dems as they strip the bill of a public option and a surcharge on the wealthy.

Over in the Senate, God only knows what Max Baucus is up to as he continues to try to woo brofriend Chuck Grassley. He's now working with just six members of the Finance Committee -- three Democrats (including him) and three Republicans. Majority Leader Harry "I'm no LBJ" Reid hopes to have the Baucus health care bill by the August recess so they can spend that month merging it with the decent Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee version.

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July 27, 2009

Fact Checking Obama on Transparency

By Christopher Hayes

From crack DC intern Sebastian Jones:

During last night's primetime press conference, Christi Parsons of the Chicago Tribune asked President Obama a pointed question about the transparency his administration had often promised during the campaign and seemingly failed to deliver once in power. The President's response, short and direct, was also relatively misleading. Examining the record, we fact-check his remarks.

1) Meeting Health Care Executives

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July 23, 2009

Pelosi on the Public Option: "That's Gonna Happen."

By Christopher Hayes

Just got back from an hour-long interview Speaker Pelosi gave to a few journalists on healthcare. I've interviewed the speaker a number of times, and it always strikes me how vast the gap must be between Pelosi's public persona as a kind of gentle earnest liberal grandmother, and her behind-the-scenes role as an incredibly effective vote wrangler. At one point she said that she's always called Washington DC "the city of the perishable. When you got the vote, you take the vote." And at this she pounded her fist into her hand with relish and a smile that made me think about just how much she seems to like her job.

She seemed confident about the House being able to pass a healthcare bill with a "strong" public option, the importance of which she repeatedly stressed. "That's gonna happen," she said flatly. She also said that for all the stories about Democrats rebelling over the Ways and Means proposed surtax on the rich, she's gotten very little push back from members of her caucus.

And unlike Democrats in the Senate, Pelosi didn't seem overly concerned with getting a bipartisan bill. "This is bigger than anything we've done in our political lives," she said of passing healthcare reform. "It's the most noticeable initiative that Congress can take that improves the lives of Americans." Republicans, Pelosi said, know just how politically potent the issue is and how much successful reform would benefit Democrats. And that's why they're devoted to killing it. Jim DeMint's comments that defeating healthcare would "break" Obama, "blew their cover." Pelosi said. "They will do anything to stop it."

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July 22, 2009

The Stakes of the Healthcare Battle

By Christopher Hayes

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, I think it's incredibly important for anyone even vaguely on the center-left to understand what's at stake in this healthcare fight. Talking to an immigration reform activist a few weeks ago he described healthcare reform as the "front end of the wedge. If we can't get that through, forget immigration reform." That's true for pretty much every other item on the left's agenda. Jim DeMint was speaking the truth.

Since Washington lives on drama, and the 24 hour news cycle exacerbates that tendency, it's very easy to lose perspective. But this letter from a reader at TPM summed up how I'm feeling pretty well:

if this country cannot pass a bill which insures that every citizen has access to medical care, which every developed country has managed to do (and got done many many years ago), there is something very fundamentally and structurally wrong with this country.

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July 22, 2009

The Politics of Pecora

By Christopher Hayes

If there's one thing that everyone seems to agree on, it's that the current financial crisis is complicated. There's two problems with this. First, it's not, fundamentally, true. The causes for the crisis are fairly simple when you strip away the artifice and lingo. (Most notably an $8 trillion housing bubble that the financial over-class insisted wasn't a bubble.) But more importantly, the perceived complexity of the issues are being cynically manipulated by those responsible to stem the tide of popular anger and insulate themselves from the wholesale reforms that are necessary.

In a piece on the bailout, Matt Taibbi referred to this posture of condescension as the "eye-roll." As soon as you ask a question -- why did you think housing prices would go up forever -- you are treated to the eye-roll which is the posture of those in power to the supposed ignorance and idiocy of those attempting to figure out just how they broke the world.

The point is that complexity has an enervating affect on the polity: people can only marshal anger and action about the crisis if they feel that at some basic level they understand it. Before we have politics, or a broad call for reform, we must have some broadly shared understanding of what went wrong and who's responsible. That's why a new Pecora Commission is so vital.

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July 13, 2009

Understanding Legislative Corruption

By Christopher Hayes

Ezra has a smart post up on the mechanisms of influence that the health insurance industry is using to affect the legislative process. "It's Not the Money. It's the Relationships," he says and includes a chart showing the various former Senate finance staffers who've gone to work for the insurance borg.

This is a really crucial point. We have a tendency to understand the economy of influence in DC has almost entirely a product of campaign finance, and the exchange of money. But in my two years here, I've been amazed at how much more powerful establishment social networks are. For another (depressing example) of this phenomenon, check out this item from Sam Pizzigatti's newsletter Too Much:

The Managed Funds Association, the industry trade group, has just hired a well-connected D.C. lobbying firm. How well-connected? Th e firm's newest star lobbyist, Carmencita Whonder, used to serve as the top financial policy adviser for Senator Chuck Schumer, the powerful New York Democrat. Hedge fund managers are hoping Whonder can save the loophole that lets them claim fee income as a capital gain. Ending this bit of tax sophistry, as the White House proposes, would over double the tax due on hedge fund windfalls. In 2008, the top 25 hedge fund managers averaged $464 million each.

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July 6, 2009

This Week On The Hill

By Greg Kaufmann

This week -- a lot of appropriations work, more markups on health care legislation, the Senate gets started on its climate bill, and welcome Senator Al Franken….

The Senate is scheduled to take up the $3.1 billion Legislative Branch spending bill and the $42.9 billion Homeland Security bill. The House will vote on the $22.9 billion Agriculture bill, $48.8 billion State-Foreign Operations bill, and the $77.9 billion Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill. The FY10 intelligence authorization act is also expected on the House floor -- there hasn't been an intelligence authorization bill enacted since FY05.

Senate Finance and Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committees will continue work on their respective health care bills this week. It remains to be seen whether the Senate Finance bill will include a public plan option. Sen. Schumer has been the strongest advocate for one on the Finance Committee, but on Face The Nation he was talking possible compromise through regional cooperatives, a weak alternative to HELP's proposed HHS-run plan (which could also still be amended). The House will continue its work on a health care bill as well and plans on bringing legislation to the floor before summer recess begins on August 8. The Congressional Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Progressive Caucus, which together make up nearly 120 Members of the House and Senate -- will continue their advocacy for a strong public option.

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July 6, 2009