Medicare drug prices

One of the first priorities of the Democrats once they regain control of Congress is to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. The Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage bill passed with an express prohibition on Medicare negotiating prices with drug manufacturers. What this created was an implicit subsidy of pharmaceutical companies. There was no reason for the plan to do this except to provide a hand out to the pharmaceutical companies. The idea of using bargaining power to lower drug prices is not new or limited to government agencies; Walmart announced it was negotiating $4 drug prices based on it's size as a purchaser. The Veterans Administration and many European governments and the Canadian government also negotiate significantly lower prices with pharmaceutical companies.

If the Democrats accomplish this legislation, which 77% of Americans support, it would give them a good boost in their negotiating power with the President for other progressive policies and stifle the talking heads and Republican operatives who relentlessly assert that Democrats have no ideas, just criticisms of Republican policies. It would also help the U.S. fiscal situation by reducing the costs associated with the Medicare prescription drug program.

The New Democratic Majority

I have had another (anonymous) blog before (for 1-1/2 years!), but I thought since it became somewhat non-anonymous thanks to The Google, I'd start a new blog. My efforts were spurred somewhat by the (surprising, to me at least) Democratic takeover of the House & Senate. I thought the Dems would pick up maybe 10 seats in the House and 2 in the Senate and I was proved wrong (fortunately). Many of my friends have considered me the most conservative of the group of (admittedly liberal) friends, mostly because of my economics views, but I am a big liberal when it comes to how we treat the poor, mostly because of my Unitarian Universalist beliefs. The new blog will be less technocratic (hopefully, because I'm a dork and a wonk and I love policy discussions, but I want to shy away from that because my job encourages these impulses).

The new Democratic majority has some good intentions but the following should be considered:

• End the war...enough said, our brothers & sisters do not need to die to end a civil war; send in the Blue Helmets (with our support, but under a foreign commander)
  
• Free trade (not preferential trade; I don't subscribe to the right-winger takeover of the term) does benefit people as long as there are social programs to help the transition
• In the same line, China is not to be feared, but accepted and recognized
• Our commitments (as Americans) to the international conventions should be paramount (especially Kyoto & the Geneva conventions)
• Universal health insurance is a necessity to protect our workers and protect our competitive advantage.
• Minimum wages do make a difference in ordinary workers' lives (not just 'high-schoolers'). It makes a living wage possible with little if no impact on unemployment.
  
• Whatever your views, preservation and sustainability of the natural environment is valuable in a social and economic way.
  
• RELIGION HAS TO BE KEPT SEPARATE FROM POLITICS. I consider myself devoted to my faith (Unitarian Universalist), and to preserve the integrity of all religion, it cannot be drawn into politics (although it should be a lobby on governmental affairs)
• Politics need demonetization; money and corporate influence play too much of a role in politics and hurt the democratic process. Corporations should, if they value their Railroad-era protections, subject themselves to individual campaign limits. If they are persons under U.S. law, they should not donate amounts exceeding those allowed by me or Joe Worker.
  
• Education needs to be held as sacred; funded & enhanced and devoid of religious indoctrination.
• While this re-emphasizes an earlier point about the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. should actually condemn torture and desist from using the controversial interrogation tactics. I have met individuals unfairly targeted (and jailed) by the U.S. in the so-called "Global War on Terror" whose only crime was being Muslim. I have also met people tortured under U.S. policy in Latin America (the person I met was subjected to what is now euphemized as 'waterboarding').
  

These are just my suggestions, but the voters tend to agree (given the recent election results). Before the Clinton impeachment hearings, I would have said, "impeach the [m.f.]". Now, I say we should not only because the Republicans have made impeachment a political decisions, rather than a legal decision. Make Bush comply to the will of the people (e.g. increase the minimum wage and tie it to increases in Congressional pay, percentage-wise). But more importantly, don't forget that money makes whores of us all if there is enough of it. The individual conscience is the light of humanity and it, and it alone, should lead decision-making.