Sens. Cantwell and Murray Vote No on Health Care Amendment to Allow Cheaper Prescription Drug Imports

I`m sure the drugs from Walmart in Kelona,BC are more dangerous than the drugs from Walmart in Renton,WA.What a croc.That vote was for all the ads for Murray on TV paid for by the pharmaceutical companies of America.ALL politicians are scumbag corporate employees.To hell with the little people as BP likes to say.

Lefties are wasting a lot of energy being frustrated by the legislative progress on key progressive changes. Problem is the Senate runs under "minority rule" filibuster found nowhere in our Constitution. Unless the Democratic Party is willing to invoke the "nuclear option" to eliminate this anomaly or until progressives can elect 60 Senators, better to feed the dog and clean the snails off the back porch.

I am so mad at the Republicans acting like they are, even blocking finance for the troops. But what is up with our senators voting against prescription drug negotiations. All I can say is both Murray and Cantwell must be bought and paid for by Pharma and Insurance Corps. When did greed overtake caring for the country and the people of this country. I am ashamed of them all. The Democrats need to get tough and why doesn't Harry Reid just do away with the filibuster altogether and let a majority pass a bill????

The arguments seen so far aren't making a lot of sense. The FDA mandates strict testing of new drugs brought to market that have to be funded by Pharma. Testing is expensive, R&D for new drugs is expensive, and marketing is expensive. Somebody has to pay these expenses before the drug even makes it to market. I know of one Pharma company who just lost $60million on a failed FDA testing program. The company has to make up that difference somewhere.
So what would be the alternatives? An FDA with no teeth so we end up with drugs like thalidamide? Where do we get the next block-buster drugs like what we have seen lately advertised on TV? New drugs with fewer side effects? These advancements cost money and in the US and the free market, capitalistic system we enjoy the most efficient method of bringing new products to market than any other. I would HATE the government getting involved in this industry any more than it is because universally, government is proven itself to be one of the most inefficient organizations for doing anything let alone trusting them to manage medicine and insurance companies. Graft and corruption has to exist to a lesser extent in capitalistic systems but to add both plus politics is what makes the government alternative so inefficient. Anyone have the time to find out what countries produce the most NEW drugs to hit the marketplace? Our system isn't that bad, it just needs some corrections to make it better than it is today. Same goes for the healthcare debate.

As Senator Dorgan demonstrated during the floor debate, the lower-priced Canadian or European meds he's talking about are exactly the same as the expensive stuff sold in the US. They're formulated by the same companies, manufactured in the same factories (often in third-world countries), packaged in the same bottles.

The only differences -- aside from the markup/profit -- are the label on the bottle and the package inserts. Each jurisdiction requires different verbiage regarding uses, contraindications, interactions, and such. Think of it in terms of, say, cigarettes ... cartons going to Sweden or Canada wouldn't have the Surgeon General's warning (though they might have a warning from that country's SG-equivalent).

In other words, the "FDA certification" issue is truly a red herring thrown by Big Pharma. It has no purpose, no rationale, other than to defeat Dorgan and protect corporate profits. I can sorta understand why Lautenberg and Menendez vote wrong, since there are major drug companies strung up and down the New Jersey Turnpike. But Cantwell and Murray have no such excuse reason for their wrongdoing on this legislation.

This is awful. Frankly, I can't imagine anyone worried about unsafe drugs from Canada or the EU. This is PHARMA garbage.

Last two election cycles I donated a fair amount of money to Senator Murray. No more. The Democrats have sold out to the Health Care Industrial Complex and I am through with them. At least when you elect a Republican you know you are getting a scumbag. Dems pretend to care, but in reality are both liars and scumbags. Give me a plain old Republican scumbag from here on out.

There's no merit to the safety argument. If you have read any of the articles in the last however-many years on drugs long approved by the FDA which have been found to be unsafe, and the collaboration between pharmaceutical companies' drug trials and FDA insiders to get unsafe drugs approved to the extent of the FDA accepting Pharma's lies about their drugs, you'd either laugh or cry about the charges against Canadian drugs. The FDA allows drugs to be sold in the US that many other countries ban.

"Democratic Leaders" using right wing talking points ... those 2 are seriously worthless so often.

I know this is crazy - with $10 million, I would not only make sure that murray, cantwell, gregroire ... were unemployed,

I'd find a way to make sure that this whole entire branch of political diaper shitters - locke, sims - were extinct... OR, at most representing the upper middle class affluents who can afford to be sold out over, and over, and over to their crooked leafy neighborhood neighbors.

rmm.

Is there any merit to the "safety" argument at all? This is a line straight from George W. Bush during the 2004 campaign, and (probably) comes straight from the mouth of pharmaceutical lobbyists.

Bullshit move, and a very bad vote.

sigh. about time to start it. obama is selling out to insurers even when this means doing a 180 from his own stands in the senate....cantwell who we like on finance reform won't let us import drugs from canada....it's time to start the communist party usa ....either that, or we have to go import a bunch of wheat farmers from Saskatchewan to teach us how to do this thing called "politics," how to engage in this thing called a political "fight," or how to have those things called "balls."

Sigh.