Comments on: PhRMA’s Big Bribe Comes In

By: Mr. President, are you REALLY going to defend the Baucus SCAM? - Jack & Jill Politics

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:11:26 +0000

[...] After all, we’ve already had the SELLOUT TO PHARMA. [...]

By: Whistleblower: Baucus health bill an ‘absolute gift’ to insurers | NWOTruth

Whistleblower: Baucus health bill an ‘absolute gift’ to insurers | NWOTruth — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:32:59 +0000

[...] as Matt Taibbi points out on his blog, the deal also ensured that any health reform bill supported by the White House would [...]

By: can america be salvaged? « celluloid blonde

can america be salvaged? « celluloid blonde — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:37:57 +0000

[...] distance himself from the progressive economic advisers who strategized his election win, sell out to Big Pharma, extend the Patriot Act, celebrate a big signature on closing Guantanamo Bay and then fail in any [...]

By: cassandravert

cassandravert — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:54:53 +0000

A lot of progressives are puzzled as to why it seems that Democrats in general and Obama in particular have given away more than they had to in the name of getting health care reform passed. Are you saying that this was all posturing? That Democrats, or at least Obama, never wanted real health care reform and always intended to sell it?

If the price was support for the Baucus debacle, he (and we) really got screwed since health care would have supported that gift anyway.

By: The wealth of health. « grippingly authentic!

The wealth of health. « grippingly authentic! — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:05:34 +0000

[...] Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone and Slant has written, “It seldom happens that the public is awake and focused enough to have this kind of [...]

By: sgtdoom

sgtdoom — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:35:49 +0000

"Still leaves the possibility of public option.." In what universe do you live in?? Prez Obama gave a speech where he completely DUMPED the public option (although he reframed the exchange plan as "public option") and instead embraced the neocon/Wall Street planck of exchanges, barring citizen access to right to redress via tort "reform" and mandating millions of Americans buy private shoddy insurance. He states they will make it illegal for insurance corps to toss the sick off their policies, yet we will first have to sue for the right to sue (see previous neocon/Wall Street tort "reform") should we seek redress in such a matter. And should such legal action go all the way to the Supreme Court, why, he's already appointed an insurance industry-friendly judge to the unananimously pro-corporate bench (Judge Sotomayor). Can anyone shout: "Who could have ever seen that happening?" One has to understand the layers of securitized loans between the major five (JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Goldman Sachs, BofA, Morgan Stanley) and the private equity firms and the pension firms investors and their insurance industry investments (see link to chart under Ungar responses) to fully grasp the significance of a much-needed backdoor bailout of the insurance industry. 'Nuff said....

By: The truth and change, 3b: From Gilgamesh to Pharma « truth and rocket science

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:53:47 +0000

[...] Trojan Horse that Big Pharma will ride into the future (and into our minds and bodies), a “PhRMA payoff” in the words of journalist Matt Taibbi. The great gorging that the drug companies will [...]

By: Suburban Guerrilla » Blog Archive » Showdown at the OK Corral

Suburban Guerrilla » Blog Archive » Showdown at the OK Corral — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:08:38 +0000

[...] Matt Taibbi: This fight on the Hill over health care is extremely interesting and also a very important moment in our history. It was somewhat accidental that the Democrats decided this year to even try this reform; it probably wouldn’t have happened had not a certain segment of their campaign contributors, most notably the major manufacturers like the auto companies, seen their businesses start to crater in part because of health care costs. That’s where the top-down momentum for actually doing something about our absurdly inefficient system probably came from. [...]

By: sgtdoom

sgtdoom — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:39:18 +0000

Thanks, Marie, you are right on target, please see my following two posts which elaborates on response to Ungar (and ignore the remark about balance sheet – my mistake, I meant to say annual reports).

By: sgtdoom

sgtdoom — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:33:59 +0000

Next, Mr. Ungar, you'll want to go to this site, page 53, and note the financial firms involved, and THEIR derivatives exposure outstanding. Studies these details closely and enlightenment will surely follow.