Subject: [Homestead] Schwarzenegger pays off his bribers
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 12:40:07 -0700
An "honest" politician is one who when bought, stays bought.
Schwarzenegger stayed bought---the dishonest pain, sometimes death he
inflicted on Californians will drive him from office unless Congress
bails him out by legislation legitimizing purchase of drugs from Canada,
England, et. al.
The New York Times
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October 1, 2004
Schwarzenegger Vetoes Bills Seeking Drugs From Canada
*By JOHN M. BRODER*
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed several bills
on Thursday that would have made the state the middleman in large-scale
consumer purchases of prescription drugs from Canada.
Mr. Schwarzenegger said the bills were illegal under federal law and did
not have adequate provisions to ensure the safety of imported medicine.
He said he was addressing the high cost of medications by negotiating
directly with pharmaceutical companies to win discounts for the
estimated four million low-income Californians who do not have
prescription drug coverage.
In his veto message on the main bill, which would have set up a
state-run Web site to help consumers find discount drugs in Canada, the
Republican governor told the Democratic-controlled Legislature that such
measures "oversimplify the complex safety, trade, supply and pricing
issues involved in the marketplace." He said he shared the sponsors'
concerns about high drug prices and pledged to introduce legislation
next year that would enshrine in law his approach to lowering costs for
the state's poorest residents.
Mr. Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill on the last possible day for acting
on hundreds of measures sent to him at the end of this year's
legislative session. He vetoed 71 bills on Thursday alone and 273 of 844
sent to him at the end of the session, the highest rate of vetoes by a
California governor in at least a decade.
The sponsors of the drug import bills had hoped to make California a
leader in the nationwide movement to drive down the cost of prescription
drugs by allowing consumers to buy them directly from Canada, where
their prices are 30 percent to 60 percent lower than in the United States.
Legislatures across the country are pressing the issue, with 24 states
considering bills to explore importing drugs from Canada or elsewhere.
West Virginia, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Vermont and Rhode
Island have already enacted laws that take the first steps toward
engaging in broad imports of prescription medicines from Canada,
although the federal government is challenging the legality of some of
the programs.
At the federal level, the House voted in July 2003 to allow Americans to
buy prescription drugs from both Canada and Europe, but the measure has
stalled in the Senate. Senator John Kerry has raised the issue in the
presidential campaign, saying the Bush administration's opposition to
such imports keeps prices high and favors drug companies over consumers.
One of the bills Mr. Schwarzenegger vetoed would have required the
California Department of Health Services to set up a Web site to help
consumers compare prices among Canadian pharmacies and buy medicines
from them. Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and New Hampshire already
provide similar Web sites, and Illinois will begin operating one within
the next few weeks, the office of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich says.
Another of the vetoed bills would have required California to monitor
foreign suppliers of prescription drugs to make sure they met American
standards for purity, handling and packaging.
Assemblyman Dario J. Frommer, a Democrat who sponsored the main measure,
said the veto demonstrated the power of the pharmaceutical lobby and its
campaign contributions. Mr. Schwarzenegger has received more than
$300,000 in contributions from drug companies since announcing his
candidacy for the governor's office last year, according to state
campaign finance records.
Mr. Frommer also said the governor's plan to negotiate discounts was
inadequate because it would cover only a small fraction of California's
36 million people and because, he said, drug prices would be markedly
higher even after the governor's negotiating than those available
through Canada.
The Legislature passed the Frommer bill by sizable margins but not by
enough to override the governor's veto. The assemblyman said the
Legislature would be back next year, however, with a stronger version of
the rejected measure.
"This will continue to be an issue here and around the country," Mr.
Frommer said. "States will continue to take matters into their own hands."
Pharmaceutical companies bitterly oppose the reimporting of their
products from overseas, saying it would pose unacceptable risks to
consumers, who, the industry says, would not know what they were buying
or from whom. Industry officials warn of counterfeit or improperly
stored medicines' entering the United States.
They also complain that Canada and other countries that are potential
suppliers to American consumers keep prices low by imposing cost
controls, which, the companies say, rob them of the profits they need to
pay for research to develop new medicines.