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Big Pharma Buys Big Government In $80+ Billion Deal

Written by Wellness Club on June 4, 2012 – 5:15 pm -

Must Corporate Wealth Always Lead To Greed And Corruption?

 

Opinion By Nurse Mark

 

The debate leading up to the passage of President Obama’s Health Care legislation was fierce, acrimonious, and expensive – and now new details are emerging, showing how expensive, who was spending what and why they were spending it.

It is no secret that Big Pharma is beyond wealthy. The largest of the pharmaceutical companies have bigger budgets than many small and even medium sized countries. Collectively, they can, and apparently do, buy and sell governments.

A recent news article published in Bloomberg Businessweek offers some startling and disturbing information about the wealth and influence that these mega-corporations wield.

Here is a small excerpt from the Bloomberg Businessweek article “Drugmakers Vowed to Campaign for Health Law, Memos Show” By Drew Armstrong on May 31, 2012:

Drugmakers led by Pfizer (PFE) Inc. agreed to run a “very significant public campaign” bankrolling political support for the 2010 health-care law, including TV ads, while the Obama administration promised to block provisions opposed by drugmakers, documents released by Republicans show.

The internal memos and e-mails for the first time unveil the industry’s plan to finance positive TV ads and supportive groups, along with providing $80 billion in discounts and taxes that were included in the law. The administration has previously denied the existence of a deal involving political support.

While this sort of behavior is not restricted to the Democrat party (Republican politicians could probably be expected to be just as mesmerized by the glitter of Big Pharma’s gold and just as eager to offer “deals” in exchange for it) it seems just a little bit unethical to me, as it must have seemed to the Obama Administration since the article tells us “The administration has previously denied the existence of a deal involving political support.” If this deal were not unethical, why would the administration feel a need to deny it?

I invite you to follow the link above and read this article for yourself. Here also is a link to a statement by Congressman Joe Pitts who is investigating this affair; http://pitts.house.gov/press-release/investigation-reveals-white-house-role-backroom-health-care-deal

What’s right? What’s wrong? Who knows! But one must ask: Just what good could have been done with $80 billion dollars had it been put to a different, more honorable use?

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