Sinema tells White House she's opposed to current prescription drug plan

[AZProgressive]

The White House has a new headache as it struggles to get its multitrillion-dollar party-line spending bill passed: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's objections to drug pricing reforms that are already struggling to make it through the House.

The Arizona Democrat is opposed to the current prescription drug pricing proposals in both the House and Senate bills, two sources familiar with her thinking said. They added that, at this point, she also doesn’t support a pared-back alternative being pitched by House Democratic centrists that would limit the drugs subject to Medicare negotiation.

Sinema met with President Joe Biden on Sept. 15 to discuss the social spending package, in which party leaders hope to include the Medicare prescription drug pricing proposal. Sinema has made her resistance to the current House prescription drug negotiation proposal clear to the White House, according to one of the sources, but it’s unclear if she’s completely immovable.

Both she and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who met with the president the same day, delivered what one source described as a sobering message for the White House about the fate of the reconciliation bill and its $3.5 trillion price tag, which they both say is too high. The social spending plan is designed to pass without GOP votes through budget reconciliation, meaning that Biden will need to win all 50 Senate Democratic votes to secure its passage.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/19/kyrsten-sinema-biden-drug-pricing-prescription-plan-512907

[sabbat hunter]

1. Both her and

Manchin need to go fuck off. If we can get to 52 seats in 2022, I think Schumer should strip them of all their committee/committee chairs unless they fall in line.

[Polybius]

18. 52 won't be easy in 2022

An uphill battle for sure.

[Celerity]

20. Even keeping our current 50 is going to be hard in 2022, especially

if we fail to pass the voter protection bills.

We have 4 seats at real risk

GA Warnock
NH Hassan
NV Cortez Masto
Kelly

Michael Bennet should be ok in CO.


We have real shots at flipping 2

PA (Open)
NC (Open)

Then a harder one

WI (whether Johnson runs again or not)

And the hardest

FL (Rubio will be tough to beat, but Demings has a shot)

There are no other realistic shots at pick-ups for us. The rest are zero chancers or are in the wish fulfilment category like the 2020 Senate races in KY, SC, TX, and, to a certain extent (mainly due to a poor, non native Mainer Dem candidate in Gideon, as Stephen King would have won IMHO), ME.

The last two first midterms for a Dem POTUS were horrid Red Waves. (2010 and 1994), but COVID is a wild card. It will still be an uphill struggle.

The House is likely gone (which unfortunately almost certainly means multiple real impeachment attempts of Biden and maybe Harris), as with redistricting alone we are likely already 7 to 10 seats behind the Rethugs before a vote is cast, and we have half again to double the at-risk seats they do even after that, plus are fighting huge historical trends.

Again, our odds are even worse all-round if Manchin and Sinema (and perhaps some hidden ones, though I think almost all of the others at least support modification) block the voter protection bills via refusal to even modify the filibuster.

[walkingman]

2. Hard to understand some of these Democrats - what could possibly be

wrong with negotiating drug prices for Medicare - VA has done it for years.

[Nictuku]

4. Time to check her contributors.

I would bet that she receives big money from big pharma.

[brush]

14. It's quite possible that big Pharm lobbyists have gotten to them.

I'm pretty sure that's the case with Manchin.

The Intercept has revealed that Manchin’s daughter, the former president and CEO of the company that made EpiPen, oversaw a 600% price increase that gouged millions of captive EpiPen users. Not only that, she helped dismantle the only company that offered a competing product.

https://medium.com/politically-speaking/the-intercept-just-intercepted-joe-manchins-corruption-51574f33c185#:~:text=The%20Intercept%20has%20revealed%20that%20Manchin%E2%80%99s%20daughter%2C%20the,the%20only%20company%20that%20offered%20a%20c

[JohnSJ]

3. In 2000 Sinema worked on the Ralph Nader campaign for President.

[AZProgressive]

5. I know

She used to be an anti-Iraq war activist. Said that Reagan and Bush were the real Saddam lovers but she is with the Blue Dogs now.

[brush]

15. She's also a former Green Party member and the only reason that party exists is...

to run and siphon votes from Dems so republicans can win.

[msongs]

6. it's almost as if mitch mcconnell has planted control devices in dems brains nt

[madaboutharry]

7. Sinema belongs to the passive-aggressive wing of the Democratic Party.

It’s actually been a thing for some time.

[Me.]

8. Is There Anything THe WH & Dems Are Trying To Do To Benefit People That She Isn't Opposed To?

[Journeyman]

9. I don't remember a lot of negotiations among the Republicans for their 2017 tax boondoggle . . .

seems they fell all over themselves to add perks and payouts there. It passed 51-48, with no Republican defections.

[Calista241]

10. And people wanted us to kill the filibuster.

We can't even agree on reconciliation, a $15 minimum wage or voting rights.

What on earth makes people think we could tackle tough issues like justice reform, immigration or judicial reform?

[dflprincess]

11. Has anyone reminded her that Arizona

has a large population of older people?

[wackadoo wabbit]

17. She doesn't give the proverbial rat's ass about her constituents

She's made that obvious by her actions.

[LW1977]

12. Can't stand her!

She looks like that Karen who threw her groceries out of her cart in a fit of rage.

[WHITT]

13. Check Musta Cleared

[brush]

16. Yep, from the big Pharm lobbyists.

[Celerity]

24. +1

[Meowmee]

19. We need people who can't be swayed by pharma lobbyists

[Tribetime]

21. Her and Manchin have sold their souls to corporations

[belpejic]

22. Does Sinema even want to run again? nt

I can sort of get Manchin--he has always been a blue dog with few principles--but really, wtf is Sinema thinking? Has she always been this big of a sell out? I freely admit knowing next to nothing about AZ politics, but I would have thought that a Democrat in a state with a large elderly and Latino population would give a s**t about affordable health care, and, given her personal background, I also would have thought that she might care a little bit about civil rights.

I guess she only cares about the money and power, although she isn't going to have nearly as much of the latter after she gets primaried in 2024.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

23. How maverick-y (nt)