Important Daily News You Need to Know, Today's Issue: Drug Lobbies

Political lobbying is an important part of the Washington political machine. Representatives cannot possibly carry on expertise in every field of interest. The government could never hire enough bureaucrats to keep track of all of the interest groups in this country who need representation.

Political lobbies are necessary for our government to run efficiently; but they can, and often do, become too powerful on Capitol Hill. The pharmaceutical lobby – also known as “Big Pharma” – is one such lobby where size, power, and money have made the government less effective and efficient. As the paid representatives of multibillion dollar corporations, pharmaceutical lobbyists push against regulations that make drugs cheaper for consumers, and against regulations that ensure adequate testing and product safety.

According to The Washington Post, the drug industry has once again fought off attempted price curbs in Washington.

This time, their efforts were levied against the new health care legislation. Democrats have long hoped to help bring down costs by putting together a series of government-enforced price controls on prescription drugs. Most other developed economies employ the very same price controls – then again, most developed economies have universal single-payer systems, or at least employ robust public option programs.

Not only will roughly 32 million new Americans be brought onto insurance rosters, and be given prescription drugs; the prices of those drugs will be allowed to ascend without safeguards.

The entire point of the health care legislation was to control costs and maintain some sustainable outlook for the next decade. By caving to insurance lobbyists the government, particularly Congress, undercut their own ambitious and politically risky plan. Pharmaceutical lobbyists successfully ensured 12-year protections for brand names against generic competition, and they beat back proposals to allow importation of low-cost alternatives from overseas.

During the Bush administration the argument was that drugs from Canada were substandard and should be banned or frowned upon. Now, the argument is that in this time of tumult and change American drug companies should be protected against alternatives. The U.S. government should do everything it can to protect domestic industries, but it should not do so by allowing undue harm to the American people. Big Pharma can take a hit to its bottom line profit. On the other hand, the American people cannot afford the costs of a privately monopolized health care industry.

If health care fails to curb costs the Democrats will be forever branded as the single responsible party, and the American people may become even less progressive for fear of being taken to the cleaners. We cannot expect to make the necessary changes to areas such as finance, housing, banking, manufacturing, and trade if we cannot stand strong on health care.