American Glob

Gee, isn’t this the exact opposite of what candidate Barack Obama promised?

With Democrat Martha Coakley in trouble in the Massachusetts special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat, Democrats could lose vote No. 60 for President Obama’s health-care bill. In response, an army of lobbyists for drug companies, health insurance companies, and hospitals has teamed up to throw a high-dollar Capitol Hill fundraiser for Coakley next Tuesday night.

Of the 22 names on the host committee–meaning they raised $10,000 or more for Coakley–17 are federally registered lobbyists, 15 of whom have health-care clients. Of the other five hosts, one is married to a lobbyist, one was a lobbyist in Pennsylvania, another is a lawyer at a lobbying firm, and another is a corporate CEO. Oh, and of course, there’s also the political action commitee for Boston Scientific Corporation.

This is hardly surprising. It’s been widely known since last summer that Obama got into bed with big Pharma.

So now we know why the president wants everyone to make nice in the healthcare debate. His White House has cut a deal with Big Pharma that smells like the same old rotten politics that candidate Obama regularly denounced and promised to end. The drug industry agrees to deliver $80 billion in future savings and the president promises the government will not use its awesome purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices.

Chief Obama propagandist David Axelrod, the man who wrote the vacuous slogan “yes we can,” has a vested interest in the passage of ObamaCare. It’s making him rich.

Axelrod’s former firm, for which his son still works, is AKPD Media and they are being paid by an organization called Health Economy Now to help push ObamaCare. Health Economy Now includes big PHARMA, the SEIU and the AARP. The conflict of interest? AKPD owes David Axelrod a lot of money.

See how many hands wash the others?

David Axelrod helps to pass ObamaCare. ObamaCare passes, AKPD has more money. AKPD gives money to David Axelrod. Everyone is happy!

Hugh Hewitt of Town Hall busted this wide open yesterday.

“If Axelrod has been negotiating any part of any deal involving any of these players which are funneling money to the firm that owes him money, or if he is advising the president on the deals with any of these groups, that’s a conflict of interest.  Laundering the money through a “coalition” doesn’t remove the conflict much less the appearance of impropriety.  The coalition is in effect partially funding David Axelrod’s severance package though its members might have done so unknowingly.  These forthcoming payments to Axelrod are much more significant than the sort of “retained ties”  that Democrats blasted Dick Cheney for vis-a-vis Halliburton even though there was no high level negotiations between the vice president and his former company.”

Like Hewitt, Michelle Malkin, author of Culture of Corruption, cites an important Bloomberg article on this subject and makes the following point:

“Now, Bloomberg’s Timothy Burger brings news about Axelrod’s latest health care conflicts of interest that will come as no surprise to those who have fully informed themselves of the Chicago way. While White House press secretary Robert Gibbs assails the motives of grass-roots activists by falsely smearing the movement as corporate-funded shills, Barack Obama’s own senior adviser and chief Astroturfer raked in millions of dollars from Big Pharma.”

This story is beginning to take root in the mainstream press and is currently on the front page of the Politico:

“Critics of President Obama’s health-care overhaul are zeroing in on his senior adviser, whose former partners at a Chicago-based firm are the beneficiaries of huge ad buys—now at $24 million and counting—by White House allies in the reform fight.”

Not too long ago, our friends on the left cared about supposed conflicts of interest. In fact, they couldn’t shut up about it. Now? Not so much. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air is waiting for the outrage from the left but isn’t holding his breath.

Of course, it has never been proven that Dick Cheney had any conflict of interest where Halliburton was concerned but that never stopped the left. If you want a good laugh, watch the great Halliburton protest of 2007 below.

This is the second time this week I’ve been pleasantly surprised by reporting at the Huffington Post. They’ve obtained a memo which points to an unholy union between the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby and they are not happy about it:

“A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.”

“The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return.”

“It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government’s leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada — and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.”

“In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: “Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion.”

“Critics on Capitol Hill and online responded with outrage at the reports that Obama had gone behind their backs and sold the reform movement short. Furthermore, the deal seemed to be a betrayal of several promises made by then-Sen. Obama during the presidential campaign, among them that he would use the power of government to drive down the costs of drugs to Medicare and that negotiations would be conducted in the open.”

Be sure to read the whole thing and then read these reports from Ace of Spades HQ and Hot Air.

You should also watch this 2008 campaign video from then Senator Obama.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!