President Obama, whose Wall Street filled economic team follows the Bushite pattern of protecting and enabling the thieving financial system perpetrators that caused this economic catastrophe, continues to exhibit either a feigned ignorance or complicity (either of which is appalling) regarding the predatory, dishonest corporate capitalists known as BigPharma.

In an amazing example of hypocrisy, Obama praised this dishonorable industry for offering "significant relief" to seniors in this country.  When you hear words like that, start looking for the truth because that's not what is being disseminated.

The primary interest being served is that of the drug companies.

It's not just the financial industry that has bought and controls Congress and the White House.

As James Ridgeway wrote at Mother Jones: "Big Pharma pulled off a first-class PR coup last week with its widely celebrated pledge to support health care reform by offering up a package of discounts they claim will run to $80 billion over the next ten years. The highlight of the package, said to be worth about $30 billion, is a 50 percent discount offered to old and disabled people who fall into the "donut hole," the notorious coverage gap in the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, which leaves some of us paying as much as $3,000 out of pocket for our meds.

"Announcing the agreement, President Obama hailed the drug-makers for offering "significant relief" to a "continuing injustice that has placed a great burden on many seniors," and for helping to reach "a turning point in America's journey toward health care reform." AARP, the mammoth old people's lobby, was right there at Obama's shoulder, with head man Barry Rand trumpeting that industry's progress: "This is an early win for reform and a major step forward. It is a signal the process is working and will work." The deal was also seen as a victory for Senate finance committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT), who engineered negotiations in his self-assigned role as champion compromiser in the reform debate. But the real triumph belongs to the drug companies themselves, since the supposedly magnanimous offer is just what we might expect it to be, considering the source: another wolf in sheep's clothing from Big Pharma.

"When it comes to securing their interests against even the flimsiest of threats, the drug-makers' pockets appear bottomless. A look at last week's Center for Responsive Politics report on the industry offers an awe-inspiring view of the druggies in action: To begin with, we're not talking about a handful of lobbyists twisting the arms of members of Congress. Pharma had 1,814 flacks at work last year and 1,309 in the first 3 months of this year. That's 12 percent of all the lobbyists in Washington. Last year alone the drug industry spent $234 million on lobbying. In the first three months of this year, it spent more than $66.5 million—$1.2 million a day. And that doesn't include polling, advertising, and research. Among the top recipients of Pharma funds are several members of the Senate finance committee, including Baucus himself, who have positioned themselves as a "coalition of the willing" dedicated to promoting a bipartisan middle ground on health care reform—in other words, minor changes that won't seriously affect private sector profits.

"Big Pharma's latest PR pitch is designed to make the industry look beneficent while preserving—or even enhancing—its profits. As industry analysts quickly recognized, the Medicare discount program is unlikely to hurt the drug-makers' bottom line. Charles A. Butler, a pharmaceutical analyst at the investment bank Barclays Capital, told the New York Times that he did not think the deal would have "a material adverse impact" on drug company earnings. "Because of the discounts," he said, "Medicare beneficiaries are likely to continue filling prescriptions in the doughnut hole, whereas in the past many stopped taking their medications because the drugs were unaffordable to them."

"There’s a further twist as well, in that the agreement only promises cost reductions on brand name drugs, which account for an increasingly smaller percentage of all prescriptions—a trend that the discount program might actually help to reverse. Reuters business news pointed out that "concessions will be funneled in an area that could generate additional sales volume."

"As a long-term strategy, this all makes good business sense for the drug manufacturers. A study released last year by Wolters Kluwer Health showed "clear evidence of a growing affinity for generics and a continual slide away from brands" since the institution of the Medicare prescription drug program...

"This is an especially well-timed ploy for Big Pharma, since the patent clock is ticking down on a number of its biggest cash cow drugs, which are taken primarily by older people...

"And suddenly, Big Pharma’s generous "concession" starts to look like nothing more or less than a pitch to keep people taking expensive brand name drugs, and keep the government—and the taxpayers—funding them. All this points to the fact that despite their protestations, the drug companies, like the insurance companies, have no real objection to health care "reform," as long as it happens on their terms. The Republican-penned Medicare prescription drug bill, for example, was a huge boon to both industries, opening up a mammoth new market for their products, with the government footing the bill. 

"What the drug-makers want to avoid, then and now, is an end to what Dean Baker calls "their government-granted monopolies," which allow them "to charge whatever they want. As a result, we pay nearly twice as much for our prescription drugs as people in countries like Canada and Germany." By making voluntary "concessions," the industry positions itself to combat any real change that might affect its profit margins. And with drug spending estimated to total $3.3 trillion over the next decade, $80 billion in discounts is a small price for Big Pharma to pay to preserve its stranglehold on the American health care system. So is $1.2 million a day to preserve its friends in high places in the United States Congress."