Out popped a drug lobby

By Katie Kieffer

Forget the U.S.-Mexico border for a moment. We have bigger drug cartels to contend with.

Have you flipped the TV on this week? You’ve probably noticed some version of a commercial with the subheading “PAID FOR BY AMERICANS FOR STABLE QUALITY CARE.” Americans for Stable Quality Care is a front group for PhRMA, which stands for Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, the largest drug lobby in Washington.

The commercials are soothing, professional and put viewers at ease on Obamacare:

PhRMA needs a front group like Americans for Stable Quality Care because PhRMA has been cutting backroom deals with the Obama Administration on health care reform. Last weekend, drug industry lobbyists like PhRMA literally sat down with Democrat staffers and agreed to drug-friendly verbiage in the bill, The Washington Examiner reports.

Furthermore, PhRMA spent $26.2 million lobbying last year and PhRMA President and CEO Billy Tauzin met with the White House at least 11 times to ensure that the drug lobby’s interests were included in the Obamacare bill. The Los Angeles Times reported that Tauzin has been so influential that last year he convinced the President to, “overturn the very Medicare drug policy that Obama had criticized on the campaign trail.”

Just last weekend, PhRMA agreed to spend millions running pro-Obamacare ads like the one above in “43 districts where a Democratic candidate stands to suffer for supporting the bill.”

This week’s 43-district ad surge is PhRMA’s last minute push to pass a bill that will ensure a whopping 22.2 percent profit margin for the drug industry while taxing middle class Americans into poverty. The White House’s relationship with PhRMA isn’t new, but thanks to “Americans for Stable Quality Care,” most people don’t know about it. Last August, Politico reported that PhRMA donated $12 million to put similar ads up.

TIME Magazine also reported last August that the White House privately cut deals with PhRMA yielding, “an estimated $3.7 billion windfall for the industry.” According to TIME, these deals were so egregious that they even miffed some House Democrats.

The next time you watch a TV ad sponsored by Americans for Stable Quality Care you’ll know it was purchased with drug money.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 8:00 am and is filed under Health Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.