Chupacabra Report

News that gets my goat..

Just as I mistakenly thought we had elected a Democratic Congress that would move to stop the wars, I had also hoped that the Dem majority would pass universal health insurance legislation.

The bill that passed the House was heavily stepped-on by the Republican tools of AHIP and pHarma, along with their fellow travelers, the blow-dog Democrats, but still I watched for the Senate and conference committees to produce some improvement to the status quo.

The Senate surprised me when after killing any public option, they moved to open up Medicare to ages 55 and older. This was an idea I hadn’t heard outside of the Bill Moyers show. Soon, this hope was snatched away, by swing vote Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Why? Maybe Froma Harrop has the answer. This from her column last week..

“The insurance industry has given $1-million-plus to Lieberman's Senate campaigns. The insurers have been very good to Lieberman, but they may not be done yet. That thought plus his dimming favor back home leads to the following question: Is Lieberman pulling a Billy Tauzin?

“A Louisiana Democrat-turned-Republican, then-Rep. Tauzin wrote the Medicare drug benefit that forbade the federal government to bargain on price with the pharmaceutical makers. That legislation could cost more than the Democrats' overhaul of the entire health care system. Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker famously called it “probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s.”

“As Tauzin wrote the bill to the drug makers' liking, the Bush administration threatened to fire Medicare's actuary if he revealed his true estimates of the cost. Having sold out his country and its taxpayers, Tauzin then left elected office for an estimated $2.5-million-a-year job with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

“Everything Lieberman has done in this health care brawl suggests a similar career path.”