Bill Nelson Might Filibuster PhRMA Deal

Posted on 12/06/2009 at 5:02 pm by Bob Cesca

Interesting:

Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said on Sunday that if leadership doesn’t work with him on his amendment that would break the White House deal with Big Pharma, he won’t be there to support the bill.v [...]

Nelson argues that the $80 billion commitment is a mirage and that the commitment is really only $22 billion, citing an analysis done by Morgan Stanley. Drug makers have been dramatically raising prices over the course of the last year so that when reductions come, they’ll be reductions from higher prices.

Nelson said, “They need 60 votes, don’t they?”

Honestly, I never expected this to come from him.

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  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    When the PhRMA deal came down, so many progressives acted like it was the end of hope and change. But the truth is, Congress makes the sausage, not the White House; and breaking up the PhRMA-AMA-AHIP triad is a great achievement.I also have to wonder at that September memo that ended the access of some lobbyists and brought the CEOs into the WH for direct negotiations. Looking back, it seems to me as if that was a superior 11-Dimensional Chess move.

  • Nanotyrannus

    I’m happy to see someone hold the bill hostage in order to break the industry a little, but I’m guessing Nelson wont be afforded the same deference, importance, and concessions that Snowe, Landrieu and the other hostage takers are getting. He’ll probably be given a token prize to get him to be quiet and vote with the caucus.

  • http://www.democratz.org www.democratz.org

    We have a shadow government in the US. It sells hamburgers, turkey, insurance, credit cards, whiskey, etc. We can do something about this at http://democratz.orgUnless you do something about this shadow government, you will continue to have to sit on the sidelines and complain about the nasty things that they do to Americans.

  • veralynn

    Sausage making is messy…I am hoping that the dems realize if they don’t pass something that will help, their fortunes will not be good next year.

  • El Mystico

    Maybe he was accidentally getting a lot of Ben Nelson’s phone calls?