We've spent some time here on the blog debating the deal between the White House and PhRMA and I wanted to jot down a clarification of my position on this whole thing.
First, the deal should come as no surprise since back in the early Summer the president announced PhRMA's proposal for saving $80 billion over ten years as its contribution to healthcare reform. We knew this. At the time, no one seemed to be outraged or alarmed.
What we didn't know was the extent of the tat in exchange for this, you know, tit. And it appears like it might have something to do with a White House and/or Finance Committee pledge to oppose importation or price reduction negotiations on prescription drugs.
To be perfectly clear, this isn't a fair compromise since the potential financial gain for PhRMA outweighs the comparatively nominal $80 billion pledge. And, of course, no one, including me, is a fan of the healthcare lobby and its various subsets. Nor do we like to hear about this White House -- our White House -- making backroom deals. That said, did anyone seriously believe that PhRMA made this pledge in a vacuum, offering up $80 billion in free cash, just because they're nice guys? The shocked horror in some circles about the fact that they were offered a concession in exchange for this pledge seems naive. There's always a quid pro quo, especially in politics. Why would this be any different?
Nevertheless, there's a component of the deal that makes it much more palatable. Not entirely digestible, but it certainly helps to ease the pain of this apparent concession on drug prices. It's this via Matt Yglesias:
A new coalition this morning is launching $12 million in TV ads to support President Obama’s health-reform plan, in the opening wave of a planned tens of millions of dollars this fall. The new group, funded largely by PhRMA, is called Americans for Stable Quality Care. It includes some odd bedfellows: the American Medical Association, FamiliesUSA, the Federation of American Hospitals, PhRMA and SEIU.
$12 million on its way to $150 million in advertising in order to push for the passage of comprehensive healthcare reform. Did you see the last group? PhRMA has joined with the very liberal SEIU. That's historic. I can't fully describe how groundbreaking this is.
The groups listed above, minus the SEIU, are major players who would otherwise be spending $150 million or more to perpetuate on television and elsewhere the lies and disinformation we're hearing from the town hall wingnuts. Around the clock on every network.
History has proved that the AMA and others spare no expense when it comes to lying to the American people about healthcare reform, and they would've done it again this year -- arguably with more fury and tenacity, relative to the improved chances for reform. If you recall your history, the AMA, PhRMA and the health insurance industry killed reform in 1994 and they would've done it again this year. And now the health insurance industry is isolated and surrounded.
Here's the first ad:
I've seen this spot on TV no less than six times in the last 12 hours. That's a lot.
Oftentimes in politics, leaders have to make deals with the devil in order to accomplish big things. While this one feels awkward, the goal remains, above all, victory. Attempting to kill such a deal at this point seems like it would have extraordinarily ugly consequences, the ugliest of which is obviously the defeat -- once again -- of healthcare reform. The stakes are just too high.
Adding... The ongoing wrongheaded push for bipartisanship, on the other hand, has no apparent upside.
And also... Ezra Klein just posted about this as well.
The White House was probably right to make the deal. This was never going to be easy. And passing the bill is a lot better than not passing a bill with $15 billion, or even $500 billion, more in savings.