Guess who just discovered the Jim Geraghty Axiom? Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reports that Barack Obama reversed his get-tough-with-Big-Pharma routine when it came to actually, er, getting tough with Big Pharma. How did Obama’s allies on Capitol Hill feel about it? “Awkward”:
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine. “We’ll tell the pharmaceutical companies ‘thanks, but no, thanks’ for the overpriced drugs — drugs that cost twice as much here as they do in Europe and Canada,” he said back then.
On Tuesday, the matter came to the Senate floor — and President Obama forgot the “no, thanks” part. Siding with the pharmaceutical lobby, the administration successfully fought against the very idea Obama had championed.
“It’s got to be a little awkward,” said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).
How bad did it get? John McCain wound up as the voice of populism:
He also said during his presidential campaign that he wanted to “let Medicare negotiate for lower prices” for drugs. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, when he was in Congress, also championed reimportation. Yet now, after their successful battle against it, the two are expected to fight off a similar legislative effort to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices.
Even before the vote came, it had become clear that President Obama’s aides had the votes to kill the proposal Senator Obama once co-sponsored. This, said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), “contributes to the enormous cynicism on the part of the American people about the way we do business here.” To Dorgan, he pledged: “I will be by his side as we go back and back and back again on this issue until justice and fairness is done and we defeat the special interests of the pharmaceutical industry which have taken over the White House and will take over this vote.”
Milbank and Democrats would have an easier task in counting the promises Obama keeps. Thus far, he’s managed to mostly keep his word on Afghanistan, and, um … now, give me a minute …
There are good reasons for this reversal. First, the administration already got $80 billion in concessions from the pharmaceutical industry and their support for ObamaCare, although Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid may put both in jeopardy by reneging on the White House’s deal. Second, the Canadian prices are artificially low, the result of Canadian intervention. The pharmaceuticals make up the difference in the US, which allows them to pursue a lot of R&D that only has about a 10% success rate. Forcing them to sell at artificially low prices will mean a lot less R&D, much less capital to pursue new cures, and the stagnation of health care rather than progress.
Of course, it would have been better for Obama to inform himself better before issuing foolish campaign promises that he would later have to reverse. But that would have meant less populist pap, and probably would have put Hillary Clinton in the White House.
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