In unusual move, Feingold calls out fellow Democrat Baucus by name.

[No Elephants]

Feingold leads charge against Amgen's 'fiscal cliff' win
By Elise Viebeck - 01/29/13 09:49 AM ET



Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) launched a petition Tuesday slamming drug maker Amgen for a controversial lobbying win in the recent "fiscal cliff" deal.

In an email to supporters of his political group, Progressives United, Feingold called on Amgen to "give back" the $500 million it will make from language that delayed Medicare price controls over one of the firm's drugs. The New York Times previously reported that Amgen was the only company to lobby for the provision.

"This is lavish and corrupt corporate welfare at its most insidious, and it's not just a problem with Washington. We may not have our own lobbyists, but Amgen owes it to us — their customers — to use their own expensive lobbyists to give back the very giveaway they just wheedled out of Congress," Feingold wrote.

He added that deals like the Amgen victory are among the "worst corporate abuses in our democracy." Progressives United aims to fight corporate money in politics in the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, according to its website.

"Amgen's strategy to achieve this coup was certainly brilliant, and a perfect example of the kind of corruption that permeates our government and cripples public trust," Feingold wrote, citing reportedly close ties between Amgen and the offices of Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).


Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/medical-devices-and-prescription-drug-policy-/279805-feingold-leads-charge-against-amgens-fiscal-cliff-win#ixzz2JOhpYy7g
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I miss Feingold a lot.

Here's where he is now. http://www.progressivesunited.org/about/russ-feingold

[Divine Discontent]

1. me, too! He is a good one!

[Enthusiast]

2. Baucus is another Democrat piece of shit.

You hear that Max? We are on to your criminality. You are the one that refused to discuss single payer, isn't that right? That makes you asshole number one!

[No Elephants]

3. I would not hang that on Baucus. Even 2008 Candidate Obama ruled out single payer.

IIRC, only Illinois Senate candidate Obama, my personal favorite Obama, said he supported single payer and that may have been only in filling out a questionnaire that he later said he did not fill out himself, "only" signed himself. (As if there is a difference when a lawyer is doing the signing.)

Then again, Illinois does not make decisions about Medicare anyway.

[Enthusiast]

4. Deception.

It's a new way of life in the Idiocracy.