Perhaps the greatest convergance of corrupt activities in Washington over the past few years occurred during the debate and passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. The story in a nutshell is that lobbyists wrote a one thousand page bill that was introduced hours before congressmen voted on it. The vote was then held open for three hours - the longest vote in the history of the House of Representatives - instead of the normal and required 15 minutes. During the open vote the Republican majority twisted arms and used threats and bribes to gain votes for the bill. (Later, Tom DeLay and other Republican congressmen would be admonished by the Ethics Committee for their actions.) When the bill was passed and signed by the President all of the main actors who helped pass the bill went to work for the pharmaceutical industry. Last night 60 Minutes did a great job covering this story. Crooks & Liars has the 60 Minutes footage:

Here's a direct Windows Media Player link.

Here's a direct Quicktime Link.

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The new Medicare drug benefit will provide the prescription drug industry with extra profits of up to $2 billion, according to a Knight-Ridder report. The increased profits come from the shift of Medicaid recipients, who receive drugs at the lowest price, to the Medicare drug benefit system that provides a choice of different plans, but at higher prices. Medicare officials state that the Medicare deals are offering bigger discounts than Medicaid did and that through competition the prices will continue to go down. Pharmaceutical economist Stephen Schondelmeyer disagrees, “The argument that more plans will be more competitive doesn’t appear to be true. More players doesn’t result in lower prices if they have much smaller volumes and much less leverage.” Democrats claim that the only beneficiaries of the prescription drug bill are Republicans and the prescription drug companies who contribute millions of dollars to their campaigns. Republicans say that the program is flawed and blame a partisan atmosphere in Washington for it not being better.

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