Today in health care abominations

As we all know, with the pending passage of Obama Care you and all of your weaker loved ones deemed "non-essential" to the new socialist movement will have your houses set ablaze while you're still inside by your local Death Panel Murder Commissioner. But there are other things going on in the health care battle, namely the pharmaceutical industry walking back statements that it turns out were deeply unsettling to people that heard them. Namely the fact that they had cut a deal with the White House so that in return for some ads, they'd only have to make a certain level of cost cuts. Now? Despite everyone involved essentially confirming that fact over a period of days and in several news articles, it turns out that we all accidentally misheard them. It turns out they meant the opposite of what they actually said.

In yet another in a series of evolving statements and backtracks, an official with the country's major pharmaceutical lobby said on Monday that it never struck a "quote, unquote secret deal with the White House" that would have prohibited the government from negotiating lower drug prices for Medicare.

"It was never brought up at the meeting," said Ken Johnson the senior vice president for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, just days after his boss told the New York Times that the White House's commitment to not support price controls was, as far as he was concerned, "a done deal."

Whoops, isn't that always the way? What with newspapers and people believing that your confirmation of secret negotiations were in fact a confirmation of secret negotiations. It's so annoying when that happens.

On the other hand the Senate's #2 fuckup ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin, doesn't want you to concentrate on what industry mega-giant was promised what by the Executive branch. He just wants you to know that President Obama is ready to start rolling up his sleeves and start putting in some long hours...cutting deals and compromising to get something, anything, passed. I know what you're saying, "But hasn't this process been one long, constant compromise where Democrats willingly give up popular and useful ideas that cover people, cut expenses, and save money in return for...nothing?" Yes it has and there's apparently still more to come.

What else is there to deal on? I'm not sure, but I hear it has to do with a large cardboard box with "Health Care" written on the side. We may use this special box as a receptacle for pieces of paper we can send in to the government with diseases we wish we didn't have written on them. If we believe enough in the box, we'll be healed/not bankrupted before we die. But I hear the box thing is still negotiable. It might end up being a manila envelope.