Can anybody explain the rational of who voted AYE and NO to the Dorgan amendment

[Mass]

Some very conservative senators vote YES, some fairly liberal particularly along the east coast voted NO. I cannot even start to understand the logic of this vote (and please no answer concerning security. It is BS)

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00377

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. AAAHHHH!

you see... some politicians have corporations in their states that.. manufacture drugs.

Some don't.

Doesn't matter what Party you are in, it has to do with what corporations are in your state.

[karynnj]

14. That explains Delaware and NJ, it doesn't explain most

Rockefeller said last week that he would vote against it - even though he sponsored it. Many of the liberals who voted no sponsored the bill back in June. Rockefeller's reason was that the WH said it passing would kill the bill.

[OHdem10]

2. Does the yes vote depend on how much Big Pharma puts in his/her

campaign coffers. Lots of Drug Cos on East Coast???

Aren't I a real cynic????

[TayTay]

3. Jobs

and states that have big pharma cos in their states.

[Mass]

6. So, how do we explain that our senators, who were supporting the bill with Bush as president,

voted against it in this bill. Big pharma got to them?

(and there are a lot of pharma in West Virginia? Rockefeller voted against this? and none in California and Montana?).

And Louisiana had Landrieu voting NO and Vitter AYE? -- it is very difficult to comprehend for me.

[TayTay]

8. Which vote under Bush?

I only found a "Sense of the Senate" vote, which was non-binding.

http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00084

[Mass]

9. Here are a few examples.

http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00150


http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00191

And, in March of this year, a bill by Dorgan on drug importation, that our senator and other NO voters of the bill today cosponsors. At the very least, it would be interesting to know what changed their mind.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s.00525:

[Armstead]

4. $$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[vaberella]

5. Menendez said, it's because we woudn't be able to control counterfeit drugs from other nations. n/t

[Mass]

7. Yes, sure.

So, in 2007, with Bush as president, he was not concerned about this?

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. Did he vote to allow drug reimportation in 2007?

:shrug:

[vaberella]

22. Yeah, when this was brought up, someone said he supported a measure similar to the Dorgan bill.

nt

[vaberella]

21. Nope. He voted for it. It doesn't make a bit of sense to me either. n/t

[ProSense]

10. The first thing to figure out is the difference between Dorgan and Lautenberg's amendment.

To provide for the importation of prescription drugs.

[Laelth]

11. People lined up to get cover.

It was a given that the amendment would fail (cuz it's contradictory to the agreement Obama has already made with the oligarchs), so some Senators were allowed cover, others were not.

That's usually how it works. Now, why those specific Senators needed cover from their liberal supporters I can not say. I bet safe districts were forced to vote NO. Competitive districts were allowed to vote YES to keep their campaign contributions flowing.

Make no mistake. Obama is controlling this process tightly, from top to bottom. Rahm is doing his job well (in his typically-evil, pro-corporate way).

:dem:

-Laelth

[karynnj]

12. The easiest explanations are in terms of what they do to the whole bill

The fear is that passing Dorgan will kill the health care bill which is partially based on the negotiated agreement with the drug companies. This explains the votes by the conservatives. If it would have passed, it would have derailed the healthcare bill and then not happened (as the overall bill would fail.)

The opposite is true of the liberals, many especially allies of the President or people like Dodd, Rockefeller and Baucus, who are deeply invested in passing the health care bill likely voted against it because they saw it as a poison bill. Rockefeler was quoted as saying that was why he would vote against it, in spite of being a sponsor. (It is noteworthy that most of them are people who sponsored the 2 Dorgan bills on this this year.)

The same thing happened when they tried to defeat a barely passing Medicare (Medicaid?) bill in 2008.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Obama made that deal with PhRMA--and told us to get screwed

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine. "We'll tell the pharmaceutical companies 'thanks, but no, thanks' for the overpriced drugs -- drugs that cost twice as much here as they do in Europe and Canada," he said back then.

On Tuesday, the matter came to the Senate floor -- and President Obama forgot the "no, thanks" part. Siding with the pharmaceutical lobby, the administration successfully fought against the very idea Obama had championed.

"It's got to be a little awkward," said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).

It's even more awkward for millions of Americans who are forced to pay up to 10 times the prices Canadians and Europeans pay for identical medication, often produced in the same facilities by the same manufacturers, simply because the U.S. government refuses to rein in drug prices.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121504196.html?hpid=topnews

[AllentownJake]

15. Specter voted Yes, Casey voted No

Specter has a primary in 2010, Casey wants donations in 2012.

[Sebastian Doyle]

17. I'd give Arlen the benefit of the doubt on this one

Might not just be politics with him in this case, since his own recent cancer battles have no doubt given him enough personal experience with overpriced pharmaceuticals.

Basically I think he's a douchebag, but there are some health related votes in the recent past that seem like they were influenced by his own medical battles.

[AllentownJake]

18. Arlen has become one of the most progressive members of the Senate

and one of the ones with the biggest guts, he got my vote in 2010.

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. Nays: NAFTA for pharmaceuticals, need to protect Grandma from dangerous counterfeit pills

[Freddie Stubbs]

20. Ayes: Cheaper pills for people who need them