In 2008, during a townhall meeting in Virgina, candidate Barack Obama discussed healthcare reform. He said, “I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table . . . what we will do is, we’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.”
He promised an end to closed-door discussions and offered to provide the most open, honest and transparent administration in history, assuring that he was above the merger of private profits and political power.
So why should we feel misled?
Perhaps it is because Obamacare had a secret history.
Energy and Commerce Committee investigators from the House spent the past year gathering emails and documents from insiders who were involved in the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week on the information and how it exposes government participation in crony capitalism, highlighting negotiations which laid the groundwork for the new law.
“If the trove of emails proves anything,” the Journal wrote, “it’s that the Tea Party isn’t angry enough.”
With marching orders in hand, the administration brokered backroom deals with drug industry lobbyists to win support for Obamacare, threatening the industry with higher taxes if they resisted and promising an improved deal if they agreed to actively assist with its passage.
As described by the New York Times, “after weeks of talks, drug industry lobbyists were growing nervous. To cut a deal with the White House on overhauling health care, they needed to be sure that President Barack Obama would stop a proposal by his liberal allies intended to bring down medicine prices.”
Key to the arrangement was the President’s agreement to drop his support for letting Americans buy cheaper foreign prescription drugs. Despite campaign promises to the contrary, he fought to place language in the legislation that would prevent drug re-importation. He likewise appeared inclined to not allow Medicare to negotiate for lower prices on the drugs it purchases.
His lieutenants, as part of a quid pro quo exchange, then worked with pharmaceutical companies to promote the legislation, with Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America spending $150 million on favorable advertising, utilizing two super PACs in an effort to persuade Americans that it should become law.
Transparency was deemed unimportant, and truth was rendered a casualty of political expediency.
Such clandestine efforts illustrate a pitiful display of hypocrisy – how an administration that promised to end collusion between government and special interests has been instead a radical practitioner of cronyism.
It would be unfair, however, to blame only the Obama Administration. Those with money or celebrity have increasingly been allowed disproportionate influence through politicians who are more than willing to strike a compromise, if only they can receive something in return. With a federal government spending trillions of dollars, it seems everyone wants a sweetheart deal.
But insider dealing does not come without a price.
Lost amid their scheming is the average American citizen, who simply desires a system based on fairness and equality rather than one desecrated by inside access, special interests and smooth-talking politicians.
The more our government is dominated by unaccountable forces receiving preferred treatment, the more it generates resentment. Those who are not powerful enough or rich enough to get special dispensations grow angrier by the day.
Discontent is brewing, as we struggle to understand another betrayal of the people’s confidence.
***** State Senator Chris McDaniel
