Sinema tells White House she's opposed to current prescription drug plan
Source: Politico
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 doesnt 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 its unclear if shes 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.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/19/kyrsten-sinema-biden-drug-pricing-prescription-plan-512907
PdamnedQ
(168 posts)However, who is pulling on her chain?
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)A Senator From Arizona Emerges As A Pharma Favorite
https://khn.org/news/a-senator-from-arizona-emerges-as-a-pharma-favorite/
Amgen gave $5,000. So did Genentech and Merck. Sanofi, Pfizer and Eli Lilly all gave $2,500. Each of those companies has invested heavily in personalized medicine, which promises individually tailored drugs that can cost a patient hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sinema is a first-term Democrat from Arizona but has nonetheless emerged as a pharma favorite in Congress as the industry steers through a new political and economic landscape formed by the coronavirus.
She is a leading recipient of pharma campaign cash even though shes not up for reelection until 2024 and lacks major committee or subcommittee leadership posts. For the 2019-20 election cycle through March, political action committees run by employees of drug companies and their trade groups gave her $98,500 in campaign funds, Kaiser Health News Pharma Cash to Congress database shows
PdamnedQ
(168 posts)You mean she might be Maxwell Sieben Baucus's reincarnation in the U.S. Senate and that she loves, loves, loves, big pharma folk?
Crashing medicare for all is this politician's "Big Pay Day!"
Say it ain't so.
PatSeg
(46,804 posts)She isn't terribly subtle, it is all so in-your-face.
wackadoo wabbit
(1,160 posts)No one, and I mean NO ONE, that I know is planning to vote for her again.
Botany
(70,291 posts)... funded by drug makers, fossil fuel companies, insurance companies, military crap* and so on and get paid a lot
of money for doing very little work. Hell, I could see her working on Fox or News max.
* I might be wrong but I think the right got a trillion or at least a billion dollar war chest from the Iraq war.
For the first 6 months to a year after we invaded Dick Cheney had "them" pump the oil almost non stop and
un-metered too.
BradAllison
(1,879 posts)All the neckbeards can sexual harass her while she counts her real money.
seta1950
(932 posts)Sinema and manchin are against everything that is good for the country and the people 😟
Evolve Dammit
(16,632 posts)It would cut through a lot of crap knowing who owns them all. Or at least has influence. Often it directly connects to voting record. Would possibly remove the pretense and BS.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)Maybe she's a repug in disguise.
Martin68
(22,671 posts)all the health insurance companies do. I know Republicans are insane, but what is the Democrats' excuse?
BradAllison
(1,879 posts)She's rich now. She doesn't care.
LudwigPastorius
(8,944 posts)various campaigns over the years.
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/kyrsten-sinema/industries?cid=N00033983&cycle=CAREER&type=C
I'm not necessarily saying she's a corrupt hack. I'm just sayin'...