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.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s interesting. A post on Organizing For America/My Barack Obama from July 08, 2008 says all that stuff about illegal contributions was just another smear…

SMEAR EMAIL

“A June 29th column from Maureen Dowd writes “The internet service providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the banks used for fund transfers was also located in Saudi Arabia.  Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with a similar pattern of limited credit card charges.”

FACT

“Donors to the Obama campaign are required to certify that they are U.S. citizens, and the campaign would not accept donations from foreign citizens.”

Yet today, the Politico is reporting “President Obama Refunds Cash to Kenyan Aunt, Convicted Murderer, Lobbyists”

“More than eight months after President Barack Obama won the White House, the remnants of his campaign organization is struggling to deal with some unfinished business: returning about $669,000 in tainted or illegal campaign contributions to a motley assortment of donors, among them a convicted murderer, Washington lobbyists and a number of foreign nationals, including his own aunt.”

“But the 11 Chicago-based staff members still on the campaign’s payroll are finding it was a lot easier to rake in a record-shattering $750 million than to identify and return donations that ran afoul of federal election laws or Obama’s own strict fundraising standards.”

What standards?

Remember back during the campaign when Obama said:

“I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race – and I’ve won. I don’t take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won’t find a job in my White House.”

While we’ve already seen that this apparently no longer applies, the list of lobbyists being brought into the White House fold just continues to grow and grow.

First we learned that Obama’s choice to play role # 2 at the pentagon is a lobbyist, then we found out that tax cheat Tim Geithner tapped a lobbyist to be his chief of staff.

Now, Obama is trying to appoint Tom Daschle as his “health czar” and while most people know Tom Daschle from his senate career, many people don’t know that Daschle was also a lobbyist.

From Politico:

“Tom Daschle, tapped to be President Obama’s health czar, was paid more than $200,000 by the health-care industry in the past two years, according to documents obtained by Politico.”

And it turns out, Tom’s wife Linda Hall Daschle is ALSO a lobbyist. The Washington Post reported on this back in November:

“Daschle’s new position might be complicated by his wife, Linda Hall Daschle, who is a registered lobbyist with the Washington firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.”

Oh and by the way, Tom Daschle is also a tax cheat.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air makes a great point on the willingness of the American media to look the other way:

“If the Bush administration had publicly imposed such a restriction on itself and then quietly ignored it, we’d hear endless editorials about Bush’s hypocrisy and the influence of the rich and powerful on his administration.”

What the hell is going on???

Obama loving CNN is pointing out a TRUTH about The One’s hypocrisy???

We reported on this back on January 8th but we never expected to hear about it from the lips of CNN’s Campbell Brown! Real reporting?

Way to go Campbell!!!

Barack Obama in November of 2007:

“One year from now, we have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race – and I’ve won. I don’t take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won’t find a job in my White House.”

And yet today we learn that Obama:

“Has chosen a defense expert who is currently a vice president and lobbyist for one of the country’s biggest defense contractors to be his deputy secretary of defense.”

Fascinating.

How long before we see throngs of deranged Obamatrons picketing the White House carrying “OBAMA LIED” signs?