Obama Held in Contempt by Top Democrats

Obama is held in contempt by his own parties leadership. They do not fear him and the fact that the president gave his word on these deals means nothing to them. There is more to this then liberal democrats wanting to skin the "evil" drug companies of their profits. Can you imagine a situation where members of a Presidents own party are openly contemptuous of deals that President made on his signature issue? All presidents face opposition and disagreement, but to open;y scoff at Obama illuminates what Democrats really think of him. Of course Obama has sat on the sidelines while Democrats crafted various pieces of legislation leading to bitter divisions on health care as Fall beckons:

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The bargain U.S. drugmakers struck with President Barack Obama for the pharmaceutical industry to absorb no more than $80 billion in cost cuts as part of a health-care overhaul can’t be enforced on Congress, lawmakers say.

Democratic lawmakers pushing health-care legislation, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, both California Democrats, have said Congress isn’t bound by the agreements negotiated by the Obama administration and six industry groups to help cut a total of $2 trillion from medical spending over 10 years.

“Their agreements don’t bind me whatsoever,” Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa said Aug. 6, just hours after Senate Democrats questioned top White House aides about the agreement with Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Washington-based industry trade group known as PhRMA. “We can do what we want.”

Of course this is about left wing idelogy being applied to the health care business. In their world the trick to saving money is to pay less then the market value of these drugs, their solution is to give the government the power to "negotiate" price discounts:

Deal or Not

“Whether the White House made a deal or not,” Congress would still be free to impose such a requirement, Brown told reporters.It is unclear whether giving the Medicare program authority to negotiate drug prices would save the government money even though the proposal is pushed by Democrats as a cost saver.

Democrats, citing lower per-patient drug costs for the government program for military veterans, argued that $358 in government savings for each patient in 2006 resulted from the power the Veterans Affairs Department has to negotiate drug prices.Still, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has told Congress that such price negotiations wouldn’t result in significant savings to the Medicare program.

“The impact on Medicare’s overall drug spending would likely be limited,” the CBO said in an April 10, 2007, letter to Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon.

Its been a talking point staple of the left since passage of the Medicare Prescription act that the Government needs to force companies to lower prices for the greater good. Of course the corresponding decline in profits will damage the companies that produce these life saving drugs reducing their ability to function and create new innovations, but these are Democrats we are talking about.

Update, the inevitable outcome of a President under the thumb of his allies:

WASHINGTON — Caught between a pivotal industry ally and the protests of Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration on Friday backed away from what drug industry lobbyists had said this week was a firm White House promise to exclude from a proposed health care overhaul the possibility of allowing the government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare.

The pharmaceutical lobby ran ads in favor of the Presidents efforts, now they are getting the just deserts of a Faustian Bargain.