Don’t we even get one day to just celebrate? First AP declared that progressive Democrat Katie Porter had ousted Trump rubber-stamp Katie Porter in Orange County and seemingly minutes later, Maine finished their ranked choice vote count and announced that another committed progressive, Jared Golden will be replacing Trump enabler Bruce Poliquin in Congress. [Note: Katie and Jared aren’t just garden variety Democrats who we’ll never hear from again; each is a proven leader who we can expect great things from in Washington.] Anyway, the great news was just sinking in when I saw David Sirota’s less than sanguine exposé, Big Pharma Bankrolled Pro-Trump Group As Trump Pushed Pharma Tax Cut.If we’ve learned anything about Donald Trump in the last 3 years, it’s that his word means nothing at all and that he’s the most transaction and opportunistic politician ever. During the campaign, he often tried adopting— with no context— Bernie’s populist ideas. But it was just hot, stinky air. One of Trump’s most popular promises that came directly from Bernie was to lower prescription drug prices. After Trump was elected, the idea was still popular but Trump began working hard to raise drug prices, not lower them. What a guy! And his followers seem not to have noticed— and will likely never notice. The short version of Sirota’s piece for Capital & Main: “In 2017 the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America gave $2.5 million to America First Policies Inc.— a major dark money group supporting President Donald Trump’s political and economic agenda.”So far this year, America First’s PAC— America First Action— has spent $28,980,959, almost all of it on negative advertising against Democrats. Their biggest expenditures went into attack ads against a dozen canddiates:
• Joe Radinovich (MN)- $3,256,602• Colin Allred (TX)- $3,036,688• Joe Donnelly (IN)- $2,820,486• Claire McCaskill (MO)- $2,625,287• Jon Tester (MT)- $1,909,540• Dan Feehan (MN)- $1,738,562• Susie Lee (NV)- $1,678,086• Elissa Slotkin (MI)- $1,397,996• Richard Ojeda (WV)- $1,188,011• Conor Lamb (PA)- $1,103,793• Jared Golden (ME)- $1,089,171• Doug Jones (AL)- $1,077,041
Where did they get that $28,980,959? Aside from the $10,000,000 bribe from the Adelsons, other high rollers giving to the America First umbrella operation… was the the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the top lobbying group for the drug industry and they got exactly what they were paying for: “at the same time,” wrote Sirota, “Trump backed off his position on a major drug issue and promoted a tax plan that was a windfall for the industry.”
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America gave $2.5 million to America First Policies in 2017, according to IRS documents. America First Policies was formed by former Trump advisers in 2017 and proudly touts itself as a pro-Trump organization. The PhRMA money represented more than 10 percent of America First Policies’ revenues in 2017, according to the group’s own IRS filings.…While campaigning for president, Trump pledged to take action to generally reduce drug prices and to allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for prescription medications. He then appointed a former pharmaceutical executive to run the Department of Health and Human Services, and slammed the Medicare negotiation concept after a meeting with pharmaceutical executives.“I’ll oppose anything that makes it harder for smaller, younger companies to take the risk of bringing their product to a vibrantly competitive market,” Trump said. “That includes price-fixing by the biggest dog in the market, Medicare.”While Trump has moved to allow limited negotiation in some parts of Medicare, he has rejected the larger policy he campaigned on, leaving it out of his prescription drug proposal released earlier this year.Trump also passed a tax cut that benefited the pharmaceutical industry, but that has not corresponded with a drop in prescription drug prices. America First Policies launched an ad campaign to promote those tax cuts, and spent the end of the 2018 campaign promoting them. PhRMA also gave $1.5 million to the American Action Network, which aired an ad campaign in support of the tax-cut legislation.
This ugly, deceitful ad, run by Trump's America First Action-- and paid for by the major America drug companies that are ripping us all off-- back-fired and helped Jared Golden defeat Trump rubber-stamp and Big Pharma ally Bruce Poliquin: