In the great tradition of the bought-and-paid-for cowards that they are, the GOP-controlled Congress acted in the dead of the night to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, blatantly ignoring the will of their constituents. However, what is worse is that over a dozen Democrats betrayed the people and joined them in voting down an amendment that would have allowed pharmacists to import prescription drugs from overseas, where they are priced at a fraction of the cost charged to U.S. patients.
In a nearly three-minute speech made on the Senate floor, Bernie Sanders of Vermont pointed out that last year the top five pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. made $50 billion in profit and the top ten CEOs were paid an average of $30 million apiece – yet ordinary Americans face greater illness and death because of an inability to afford life-saving medications:
“What we have is a scenario in which the American People pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs…millions cannot afford the medicine they desperately need, but at the same time, the drug companies make out like bandits.”
Senator Sanders furthermore pointed out that there are almost ten drug industry lobbyists for every member of Congress – who include “former leaders of the Democratic Party”. He made an impassioned appeal to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to “have the guts to finally stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and their lobbyists and their campaign contributions” as well as an industry that is “not only incredibly greedy, but…have a business model which is largely based on fraud.”
Senator Sanders’ appeal fell on deaf ears, even among those of his own party – proving beyond all doubt that the “power and wealth of the pharmaceutical industry and their 1,300 lobbyists and unlimited sums of money have bought the United States Congress.”
Not surprisingly, the amendment went down to defeat, 52 – 46.
Here is a list of the traitor Democrats who sided with the GOP and Big Pharma in order to make certain that their constituents continue to have their life-blood sucked away by one of the most corrupt, predatory industries in history:
- Michael Bennet (CO)
- Cory Booker (NJ)
- Maria Cantwell (WA)
- Thomas Carper (DE)
- Robert Casey Jr. (PA)
- Christopher Coons (DE)
- Joseph Donnelly (IN)
- Martin Heinrich (NM)
- Heidi Heitkamp (ND)
- Robert Menendez (NJ)
- Patty Murray (WA)
- John Tester (MT)
- Mark Warner (VA)
Not surprisingly, many of these so-called “Democrats” have received substantial contributions over the past six years; the average amount was $250,000.
On the other hand, there were 12 Republicans who broke ranks with their party and voted in favor of the amendment. Unfortunately, those of conscience who favored passage of the amendment were sorely outnumbers.
According to a September 2016 poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, seventy-five percent of Americans of all political stripes believe that the prices of prescription drugs are “unreasonable” and favor government intervention in order to address the situation. These Americans are laboring under the illusion that their lawmakers represent them. They do not – as Wednesday night’s vote clearly demonstrates.