Right Change: Obamacare on the Ropes

With the Supreme Court bearing down on a decision to either uphold or strike down the constitutionality of Obamacare there are new revelations surfacing regarding how Obamacare came to be and how it was passed. According to the Wall Street Journal, while the Energy and Commerce Committee has been looking into how PPACA was passed. The White House has refused to cooperate beyond printing out old press releases. However, a dozen trade groups turned over thousands of emails and other files. A particular focus is the drug lobby, President Obama's most loyal corporate ally in 2009 and 2010

According the Journal and the emails obtained:

"Initially, the Obamateers and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus asked for $100 billion, 90% of it from mandatory "rebates" through the Medicare prescription drug benefit like those that are imposed in Medicaid. The drug makers wheedled them down to $80 billion by offsetting cost-sharing for seniors on Medicare, in an explicit quid pro quo for protection against such rebates and re-importation. As Pfizer's then-CEO Jeff Kindler put it, "our key deal points . . . are, to some extent, as important as the total dollars." Mr. Kindler played a more influential role than we understood before, as the emails show.

With this began the all to close relationship between the Obama White House and the pharmaceutical industry. However, after the initial deal had been cut with the lobbyists, Democrat Henry Waxman stepped in. Waxman announced he would be pocketing PhRMA's concessions and demanding more, including re-importation. Essentially, he had reneged on the deal the Obama White House cut.

Not to worry though, Obama was on the way to rescue his big interest lobbyists. The White House Chief of Staff let the pharmaceutical lobbyists know that the White House "is working on some very explicit language on importation to kill it in health care reform. This has to stay quiet."

The White House was definitely repaid with a $150 million advertising campaign coordinated with the White House political shop. One of the lobbyists was recorded in a meeting as saying, "The WH-designated folks . . . would like us to start to define what 'consensus health care reform' means, and what it might include. . . . They definitely want us in the game and on the same side."

The Journal also reports:

"Mr. Messina—known as "the fixer" in the West Wing—asked on December 15, 2009, "Can we get immediate robo calls in Nebraska urging Nelson to vote for cloture?" Ben Nelson was the last Democratic holdout toward the Senate's 60-vote threshold, and, as Mr. Messina wrote, "We are at 59, we have to have him." They got him."

These are the type of tactics that infuriate people who participate in both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. As Obama has talked about not having lobbyists as part of his White House that is clearly not the case. “Let me be clear”, Obamacare only passed thanks to the extremely powerful lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry. It is yet to be seen how this will affect not only Obama’s reelection bid but perhaps the outcome of Obamacare itself.

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