The Merck Salesman: A Modern Day MLK
The Merck Salesman: A Modern Day MLK
At the House Government Reform Committee’s hearing on Merck’s attempt to bury relevant safety data about its signature painkiller, Vioxx, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) read from a Merck training manual that directed instructors to play a recording of Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech and then say to the sales force: “King was someone with goal-focus — he kept getting shut down but kept going. . . Just as with a physician, you must keep repeating the compelling message and at some point, the physician will be ‘free at last’ when he or she prescribes the Merck drug, if that is most appropriate for the patient.”
Indeed, the remarkable correspondence between spearheading the Civil Rights movement in America and selling dangerous drugs to unusupecting arthritic consumers needs little elaboration. But it gets better. Also included in the documents made public Thursday was an excerpt from Merck’s 2002 booklet, “Champion Selling: Milestone Leader’s Guide,” which deals with the problem that some doctors might not have time to talk about a Merck product (for instance, maybe they’re attending to patients). The guide cautions that field staff need to understand, “it’s those defining moments that distinguish all champions.” For instance:
— Helen Keller could have felt sorry for herself when she went blind and deaf.
– Martin Luther King could have laid low when his home was firebombed.
– Tiger Woods could have avoided the pressure by not turning pro as young as he did.
– George Washington could have finished his years with a comfortable life without the challenges of taking on the presidency.
Wow…almost makes you want to go out and sell overpriced drugs that give people heart attacks to as many doctors as possible!
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Not Covering The Uninsured, By The Numbers
Not Covering The Uninsured, By The Numbers
In honor of Cover the Uninsured Week:
Number of currently uninsured Americans: 45 million
Number of working Americans with no health insurance: 20 million
Percent of uninsured Americans unable to see a doctor when they needed to in 12 month period: 41
Average cost of visit to hospital for Americans with no health insurance: $1,000
Amount the U.S. loses per year on “uncompensated” care for people with no insurance: $41 billion
Cuts in Medicaid passed by Congress last week, over five years: $10 billion
Percent of uninsured Americans who would benefit from President Bush’s proposed Health Savings Accounts: 0.3
Percent of U.S. adults who cite lowering health care costs and health insurance as a top priority for the president and Congress: 63
Percent of Americans who say health care is the “single most important issue” for Congress to address in 2005: 10
Percent who say Social Security is the “single most important issue”: 2
Speeches President Bush and Vice President Cheney have given on health care this week: 0
Speeches they’ve given on Social Security: 4
Number of times the words “health care” or “uninsured” appear in transcripts of White House press gaggles this week: 0
Days since President Bush spoke about the issue of health care: 96
Pfizer Exec Calls Drug Industry Leaders “Dinosaurs”
Pfizer Exec Calls Drug Industry Leaders “Dinosaurs”
As reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, advocacy for drug importation and bulk purchasing came from an unlikely source during this year’s Cover the Uninsured Week. Dr. Peter Rost, vice president of sales for Pfizer Inc., called the leaders of pharmaceutical companies “dinosaurs who are committing financial suicide” for opposing low-cost drugs in the United States. 
Rost said, “Getting drugs to people who need them is about right and wrong…. When millions of uninsured older or poor Americans get sick because they can’t afford their medications, that is morally wrong.”
Rost went on to discuss bulk purchasing, the price-lowering provision his company successfully squelched from last year’s Medicare bill:
Most Americans pay prices similar to those in Europe, negotiated by insurers who buy in bulk, Rost said. “It’s the uninsured who pay the full price — twice what you’d pay in Europe. Everybody negotiates bulk prices for bulk deliveries, everybody but the United States.”
Rost has been speaking out against Bush administration health care policies backed by his employer since last September and twice testified before Congress in favor of legalizing drug imports, not only for moral reasons, but because it’s good for business. Rost claims he once doubled sales in Nordic countries for a pharmaceutical company he previously worked for after he lowered prescription drug prices.
The Star Tribune notes that Pfizer has written two letters to members of Congress urging them to ignore Rost’s opinions.
Pat Robertson Assaults Judges (Again)
Pat Robertson Assaults Judges (Again)
Religious right spokesman Pat Robertson alleged on ABC’s This Week that the federal judiciary constituted “the biggest threat to America in its history.” He said the “tyranny” of the federal judiciary was a bigger threat than World War II and communism and posed a “more serious [threat] than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings,” referring to the 9/11 attacks in which nearly 3,000 Americans were killed.
As for the threat posed by right-wing fanatics who threaten and slander judges that disagree with them, well, Robertson wasn’t asked about that. Below is an American Progress chart of five typical weeks in a calculated conservative campaign to discredit American judges and undermine the rule of law, all in order to clear the way for President Bush’s radical right-wing judicial nominees. As the chart demonstrates, the campaign has been carried out in an environment of steadily escalating hostilities, punctuated by a spate of real attacks on judges and threats to courthouses. Enjoy…
Democracy Hypocrisy: Our Man in Uzbekistan
Democracy Hypocrisy: Our Man in Uzbekistan
Over the weekend the New York Times reported on evidence that the United States has regularly sent terror suspects to Uzbekistan, an “authoritarian state” known for beating and asphyxiating prisoners, boiling body parts, using electroshock on genitals and “plucking off fingernails and toenails with pliers.” The State Department’s 2005 report on Uzbekistan states bluntly: “The police force and the intelligence service use torture as a routine investigation technique.” But Uzbekistan’s role as a “surrogate jailer” for the United States has been “confirmed by a half-dozen current and former intelligence officials working in Europe, the Middle East and the United States.” The Uzbekistan renditions are the latest in a spate of troublesome allegations about U.S. treatment of detainees, just days after the one-year anniversary of Abu Ghraib.
Worse, the abuse isn’t limited to foreign regimes. Sgt. Erik Saar, a soldier who spent three months in the interrogation rooms at Guantanamo Bay, told CBS’ 60 Minutes this week that the approach of U.S. military interrogators is “ineffective” and “inconsistent with American values.” According to Saar and a series of FBI e-mails obtained by CBS, abusive methods and sexual humiliation are used routinely in Gitmo. Saar describes a female interrogator smearing fake menstrual blood on the face of a Saudi detainee, then depriving him of water so he could not ritually clean himself and pray that night. The FBI e-mails confirm Saar’s accounts.
Dr. Frist And Mr. Hyde: The Transformation Of A Senate Leader
Dr. Frist And Mr. Hyde: The Transformation Of A Senate Leader
It’s been a long, winding, morally manipulative journey these past few years for Senate leader Bill Frist (R-TN). Originally hailed as a moderate and conciliatory antidote to former leader Trent Lott (R-MS), Frist has morphed steadily into a divisive presidential hopeful bent on securing support from the GOP’s radical right-wing base. The transformation has not escaped the notice of Frist’s colleagues, some of whom wonder aloud whether Frist’s “presidential aspirations are getting in the way of his Senate leadership position.” Below, a trip down memory lane…
Part 1: The “conciliatory” Doctor Frist
12/16/02: Frist first mentioned as candidate to be Lott’s replacement, seen as “moderate voice”: “Sen. Bill Frist (Tenn.), who helped engineer the Republican takeover of the Senate in the November elections and enjoys close relations with the White House, has some strong backers among Republicans who want a fresh face and moderate voice in the job to help the party recover from damage flowing out of racially charged remarks by Lott 11 days ago.” [WP]
12/21/02: Frist becomes frontrunner, praised as “compassionate” party savior: “Frist fits neatly into the melodramatic script of Trent Lott’s fall from power, cast as the new majority leader called on to rescue the party in a moment of peril. ‘He really shows the true compassionate conservatism,’ says Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).” [WP]
12/24/02: Frist inducted as House leader, dedicates self to “healing wounds”: “In his acceptance speech yesterday, Mr. Frist told his GOP colleagues, ‘We must dedicate ourselves to healing those wounds of division that have been reopened so prominently in the past few weeks.’…In contrast [to Trent Lott], Bill Frist comes to the leadership with a reputation as one who knows how to bring people together. It is a skill sorely needed in both the Republican caucus and the Senate as a whole.” [WP]
3/13/03: Frist lauded as “inclusive” leader, “deferential” to peers: “Many Republican senators spoke approvingly of what they described as a more inclusive leadership style than they had seen from a Republican leader. Even as the leader steers the Senate’s agenda rightward, moderate Republican senators say he meets far more often with them, soliciting their views and making them feel valued, than did Mr. Lott… Other senators say he is unusually deferential to colleagues, frequently insisting that they take the microphone at news conferences.” [NYT]
Part 2: The combustible Mr. Hyde
3/19/04: Frist crafts party platform pandering to social conservatives: “Republicans approved a platform yesterday that puts the party firmly on the record against legalized abortion, gay marriage and other forms of legal recognition for same-sex couples, reflecting the political clout of social conservatives … Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader and chairman of the Republican platform committee, hailed the platform, titled, ‘A Safer World, A More Hopeful America,’ as a tribute to Mr. Bush when he presented it to the convention yesterday.” [NYT]
3/19/04: “Doctor” Frist diagnosis Terri Schiavo from House floor, argues for divisive Senate interference: “Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, went to the floor late Thursday night for the second time in 12 hours to argue that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a ‘persistent vegetative state.’
“His comments raised eyebrows in medical and political circles alike. It is not every day that a high-profile physician relies on family videotapes to challenge the diagnosis of doctors who examined a severely brain-damaged patient in person.” [WP]
4/15/05: Frist says he’ll push for “nuclear option”: “Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is all but certain to press for a rule change that would ban filibusters of judicial nominations in the next few weeks, despite misgivings by some of his fellow Republicans and a possible Democratic backlash that could paralyze the chamber, close associates said yesterday.” [WP]
4/15/05: Frist joins religious right telecast questioning faith of Democrats who oppose Bush judicial nominees: “As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as ‘against people of faith’ for blocking President Bush’s nominees.” [NYT]
4/27/05: Frist rejects compromise on judicial nominees: “[Frist] rejected a Democratic offer to resolve an impasse over judicial nominees yesterday, as members of both parties said they are under strong pressure from interest groups to hold their ground…Frist told reporters, ‘Are we going to shift from that principle? The answer to that is no.’” [WP]
Fuzzy Math In Galveston
Fuzzy Math In Galveston
President Bush in Galveston County today, where workers voted to privatize their retirement accounts in 1981:
Just — let me just give you a sense for the difference between what a worker gets here in Galveston and then a worker would get out of Social Security. If you get a 3.75 percent return, like they guarantee here in Galveston, on your money, and you’re a person working 37 years, making about $25,000 a year, you’d receive $1,250 a month from the alternate plan now available for workers here — as opposed to $669 from Social Security. Think about that. That’s a difference between a better rate of return on your money over a 37-year period.
In fact, the Social Security Administration did an analysis of the Galveston plan in 1999. The report showed well-paid workers with no kids did slightly better in the short run under the plan. As for everyone else:
Social Security tends to offer higher initial benefits than the Galveston Plan to workers with lower earnings and/or families with dependents who qualify for Social Security benefits. Although many of Galveston’s initial benefits are higher than Social Security’s, they are not indexed to inflation and lose value relative to Social Security’s over time.
The same year, the Government Accountability Office compared the two plans, coming to a similar conclusion:
In general, low-wage workers and, to a lesser extent, median-wage workers would fare better under Social Security. High-wage earners can generally expect to do better under the Alternate Plans, although if spousal benefits are included, even the high-wage workers could eventually receive higher benefits from Social Security.
Hmmmm, makes you wonder which report President Bush was quoting.
If Brit Hume Were President…
If Brit Hume Were President…
Fox anchor Brit Hume took a creative approach this weekend to defending President Bush’s embattled U.N. nominee John Bolton. Here he is responding to the news that 59 former U.S. diplomats, including many conservatives, signed a letter condemning Bolton:
WILLIAMS: What about the 60 diplomats, including many Republicans, who have sent a letter to the Senate committee, saying we think it’s a mistake to approve John Bolton. That was based entirely on his views on the U.N.
HUME: I would hope that they would be — frankly, if I were the president and I was trying to get my foreign policy accepted, adopted, or imposed, if necessary, on the State Department, and I had someone for the U.N., I would hope there would be at least 60 diplomats and maybe many more who would find him an unattractive candidate.
See, by Hume’s logic, all you have to do to be a good candidate for the Bush administration is be considered “unattractive” by at least 60 bipartisan well-qualified observers. You have to wonder, where was Brit when Bernie Kerik needed him?
Flying Over Average Americans
Flying Over Average Americans
Last week, Congress passed and President Bush signed legislation that will make it more difficult for average Americans suffering from financial misfortune to declare bankruptcy.
Today, the Wall Street Journal reports, “United Airlines and a federal pension insurer announced a settlement that would allow the airline to hand over its four underfunded pension plans to the government in the largest corporate-pension default in U.S. history.” The move, which still needs approval by a bankruptcy-court judge, would allow United Airlines to shed $9.8 billion of retirement applications, saving the company $645 million a year for the next five years.
As for United’s employees, they will “receive less than they had expected from the company” as a result of the settlement. The Association of Flight Attendants, representing 15,500 active workers and 5,100 retirees, said it is “morally criminal” for United to abandon its pension promises. It is planning a strike if the bankruptcy judge abrogates the contract.
The point isn’t so much that United Airlines should or should not be able to declare bankruptcy and slough off promised benefits - maybe that really is what’s necessary for the company to become a “competitive enterprise for the long term.” The bankruptcy judge will decide.
The point is UAL is dumping $9.8 billion in retirement obligations on the federal government - in other words, on taxpayers - so it can get on stable financial footing. Besides hurting taxpayers, UAL’s failure to meet its commitements will adversely affect UAL workers. And last week, President Bush signed legislation that will make it more difficult for those same workers to file for bankruptcy and receive the same privilege as United Airlines - that is, of being able to start over when faced with an unforeseen financial crisis.
In General, the legislation will make it harder and more expensive for millions of average Americans to be forgiven trifling sums - most of which would barely make a mark on the $30 million per year credit card industry profits.
During the debate over the bill, Americans were repeatedly accused - despite directly contradictory evidence - of “abusing bankruptcy laws.” We’ll see who speaks up about UAL’s “abuse.”
Happy Earth Day!
Happy Earth Day!
Now:
“It’s great to be back in the state of Tennessee. I’m proud to be traveling with…Lamar Alexander.” - President Bush on Earth Day, Promoting his “Clear Skies” Initiative
Then:
Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, told Senate colleagues Monday that he will not support the Bush administration’s air pollution plan - known as “Clear Skies” - because it does not “go far enough, fast enough” to solve his state’s air pollution problems. - ENS, 7/15/03