Planned Parenthood paid $6.5 million for a seat at the State of the Union

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., invited Leana Wen, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, to be one of her guests at the State of the Union address. Wen’s seat was not cheap. Affiliates of her organization spent millions to support Pelosi’s quest for the majority in the House of Representatives and the ultimately unsuccessful efforts by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to retake the Senate. In total, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Planned Parenthood Votes — the arms of the Planned Parenthood Network allowed to engage in electoral politics under tax regulations — spent almost $6.5 million in outside spending supporting the election of Democrats to both houses of Congress in the 2018 midterm and special elections, according to FEC records compiled by OpenSecrets.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., bore the brunt of Planned Parenthood’s attacks. The organization spent $1.85 million attacking him, more than any other House or Senate candidate in 2018. One suburban Philadelphia congressman was attacked more than Rick Scott or Mike Braun, freshman Republican senators who won their race and will now vote on judges with substantial power over abortion policy. Planned Parenthood might have put Fitzpatrick so high on its hit list because of who his opponent was. Fitzpatrick faced centimillionaire heir and well-connected liberal donor Scott Wallace. Wallace has been a member of the left-wing donor organization known as the Democracy Alliance. Wallace's foundation, the Wallace Global Fund, has contributed over $400,000 to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. But Wallace didn’t make it into Pelosi’s House. He lost in part because of Wallace’s radical left-wing stances on abortion and other issues. But other Planned Parenthood beneficiaries did win: Reps. Antonio Delgado, D-N.Y., Sean Casten, D-Ill., Angie Craig, D-Minn., and Dean Phillips, D-Minn., each benefited from over $100,000 in Planned Parenthood Votes expenditures targeting their rivals or supporting their own efforts.

Planned Parenthood didn’t spend large sums just to get face time with Speaker Pelosi or reward donors such as Wallace. Federal government programs channel $563.8 million to the Planned Parenthood network annually. To keep Pelosi and her allies in charge of the federal purse strings is to ensure the continued flow of taxpayer money to the organization and its affiliates. Planned Parenthood also hopes to expand the scope of abortion law. Planned Parenthood-backed Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam recently sparked controversy when he defended a Planned Parenthood-backed repeal of certain limits on late-term abortions. Northam suggested that an infant delivered alive in a botched late-term abortion would “be kept comfortable” and “would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired.”

At the federal level, the Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funds from directly funding abortions except in extremely limited circumstances; Planned Parenthood would like to see these inconvenient restrictions removed. So on “SOTU” night, full of kingly pomp and symbol, Leana Wen sat in Speaker Pelosi’s section. It was yet another symbol of a powerful special interest’s hold on a Congress it helped pay to elect.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/planned-parenthood-paid-6-5-million-for-a-seat-at-the-state-of-the-union

>>5064200

Guessing here…hmmm all of it, its all a scam.

Russian spy Maria Butina's Republican boyfriend indicted for wire fraud and money laundering

The Republican operative boyfriend of alleged Russian spy Maria Butina has been indicted by a South Dakota federal grand jury for charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Paul Erickson, 56, of Sioux Falls, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 11 counts before a federal district court after being indicted on Monday. He was released on bond, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Moreno did not set a trial date.

Federal prosecutors allege that Erickson - who is 26 years older than Butina - between about 1996 and August 2018 knowingly and unlawfully used "false and fraudulent pretense, representations, and promises" to defraud "many victims," U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota Ron Parsons announced in a statement. Part of the alleged fraud was conducted through his assisted living business Compass Care, Inc.; Investing with Dignity, LLC, which claimed to be developing a special wheelchair; and another venture set up to supposedly build homes in North Dakota's Bakken oil fields. If found guilty, Erickson faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a range of different fines for each count. In December, Butina pleaded guilty in a D.C. federal court to conspiracy to act as an illegal foreign agent in the U.S. Butina faces a maximum of five years in prison, after which she will likely be deported. She has yet to be sentenced.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/maria-butinas-republican-operative-boyfriend-indicted-on-wire-fraud-money-laundering-charges

At least four pharma CEOs to testify at Senate drug pricing hearing

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drugmakers Pfizer Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Sanofi SA said on Wednesday that their chief executives plan to testify at a Senate hearing on rising prescription drug prices later this month. They join Merck & Co CEO Ken Frazier, who said on Tuesday that he would testify at the Feb. 26 hearing. Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday that Jennifer Taubert, its head of global pharmaceuticals, would represent the healthcare conglomerate at the hearing.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, ranking member of the committee on Monday invited executives from seven pharmaceutical companies to testify at the hearing. The other companies invited to send executives are AbbVie Inc and AstraZeneca Plc . Sanofi CEO Olivier Brandicourt currently serves as chairman of drug industry lobby group PhRMA. Bristol-Myers CEO Giovanni Caforio is the group’s chairman-elect. Albert Bourla, who became Pfizer CEO last month, will represent the largest U.S. drugmaker at the hearing.

The United States, which leaves drug pricing to market competition, has higher prices than in other developed countries, where governments directly or indirectly control costs. That makes it by far the world’s most lucrative market for manufacturers. Congress has been targeting the pharmaceutical industry over the rising cost of prescription drugs for U.S. consumers, particularly since Democrats took over the House of Representatives in January. Drug pricing is also a top priority of the administration of President Donald Trump, who had made it a central issue of the 2016 presidential campaign. Drugmakers have slowed and limited U.S. price increases as scrutiny on their practices has intensified over the past few years. They nonetheless increased prices on hundreds of drugs in January, including a 6.2 percent increase on the world’s top-selling drug - AbbVie’s rheumatoid arthritis treatment Humira - and hikes on insulin prices by Sanofi and Novo Nordisk.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-pharma/at-least-four-pharma-ceos-to-testify-at-senate-drug-pricing-hearing-idUSKCN1PV1RV

International Red Cross steps up aid operations in Venezuela

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross has doubled its budget in Venezuela to 18 million Swiss francs in recent weeks and is also helping Venezuelan migrants in neighboring Colombia and Brazil, ICRC President Peter Maurer said on Wednesday. The ICRC, a neutral independent aid agency, is working with the national Venezuelan Red Cross, mainly on health projects, and not taking sides in the political conflict between President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, Maurer said.

“So that is a growing operation,” Maurer told a news briefing. “At the present moment our concern and focus is really on the one side to increase our response to Venezuelans, and the other to keep away from the political controversy and political divisions which are characteristic to the crisis in Venezuela.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-redcross/international-red-cross-steps-up-aid-operations-in-venezuela-idUSKCN1PV1VW

>>5064376

Red Cross talks to US about risks of sending Venezuela aid

The International Committee of the Red Cross has talked to the United States about the risks of delivering humanitarian aid to Venezuela without the approval of security forces loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, an official with the agency said Friday. Opposition leader Juan Guaido has said he will defy Maduro's refusal to allow aid by asking neighboring nations to help send in large convoys of medicine and food. Guaido has declared himself interim president of the country. The Trump administration has announced it is ready to deliver aid to Venezuela whenever and however is decided by Guaido.

Alexandra Boivin, ICRC delegation head for the United States and Canada, said the ICRC had told U.S. officials that whatever plans "they have to help the people of Venezuela, it has to be shielded from this political conversation." "It is obviously a very difficult conversation to have with the U.S.," she said. "We are there also to make clear the risks of the path being taken, the limits of our ability to operate in such an environment." On Friday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton tweeted that Washington would proceed with plans to send humanitarian aid to Venezuela.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/wireStory/red-cross-warns-us-risks-sending-aid-venezuela-60788615

>>5064419

I believe so..

>>5064396

This is what I call a rigged system, always in control just the way they like it, change of faces but not much else.

>>5064418

Sad to say that you are correct, they are no different than the street drug pins..difference in the fact that one has a license the other does not.

>>5064448

All of their gardens are closed, they need to find new sources.

>>5064480

New source of trafficking or gardening…perhaps

>>5064337

Not sure I understand what you are getting at..why would PP presence prevent Feinstein from showing up?

>>5064504

Think of all the reasons why, transplants, adrenochrome, (((their parties, their dinners))), the list is endless (((their minds))).

>>5064523

Baker this one also completes the story >>5064376

>>5064530

I agree with you completely.. this is one hell of a world wide ride happening…and yes it will all be okay, a new life for the world is dawning, it just hasn't crested yet, but it will:)

Novartis CEO lauds Trump administration plan to overhaul rebates

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis AG Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said his company's prescription drug prices have been "flat to negative" over the last three years, and directed blame for high costs for U.S. patients on industry middlemen that manage drug benefits.

In an interview with Reuters in New York on Wednesday Narasimhan, a 42-year-old U.S. doctor who has headed the Swiss drugmaker since Feb. 2018, threw his support behind a U.S. government proposal to end a system of rebates drugmakers pay to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and health insurers in order to get products on their lists of covered medicines.."We (Novartis) pay almost 50 percent of our gross revenues in the United States into rebates," Narasimhan said. "If you return those rebates to patients, so patients pay less out of pocket, I think that is something that makes a lot of sense and will correct a distortion in the marketplace."

In his State of the Union speech this week, U.S. President Donald Trump complained again that Americans pay more for drugs than people elsewhere. Narasimhan, who has labeled as "destructive" efforts to link U.S. prices to those in other countries, countered that this is only partially true. "There are situations where prices in the U.S. are certainly higher than the prices in Europe, but there are many situations, as well, where they are very comparable," he said. "It's difficult to make blanket statements, like this is always happening."

Some analyses, including one commissioned by Reuters in 2015, showed that U.S. prices for the top-20 selling medicines were three times higher than in Britain. Narasimhan acknowledged the industry and company reputational challenges stemming from anger over high prices, kickback scandals and last year's revelation that Novartis paid Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, $1.2 million. He said drugmakers, in some instances, boosted prices excessively or fell short on providing access and now had work ahead to regain the standing they once had, as the industry brought scientific advances like vaccines that saved billions of lives. "I would say, over the last 20 years, because of behaviors that the industry had - I would call them outlier events, (but) it's hard to call them outlier events, when there's enough of the outlier events - damaged the industry's reputation," Narasimhan said. "At least at Novartis, I think of it as the great journey of my time as CEO to try to get back to a different place from a reputation standpoint."

Last month, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced a plan that would end rebates now paid to PBMs and others and instead pass along savings to consumers covered by U.S. government health plans. Trump, in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, again called for lower U.S. prescription drug prices. PBMs, which administer drug benefits for employers and health plans, argue that they are passing sufficient savings to patients and contend that rebates help keep down insurance premiums. Narasimhan, echoing arguments of many large drugmakers, said the existing system obscures the true price of drugs and leaves patients on the hook, in the form of higher co-pays, or co-insurance payments.

'ZERO TRANSPARENCY' He noted that changes in the decades-old rebate system could eventually affect insurance plans offered by U.S. employers, potentially leading to premium hikes. "We have zero transparency into the billions we pay in rebates," the Novartis CEO said. "You could see some adjustment in premiums. But I think that's another area where we should get transparency."

Novartis, which had 2018 global sales of $51.9 billion and net profit of $12.6 billion, gets more than a third of its revenue in the United States. But despite all the talk about rising list prices, Narasimhan said since 2016 net prices for its prescription drugs fell about 1 percent. "At Novartis, we no longer see net price growth as a meaningful contributor," he said. Instead, the company is counting on recent and upcoming launches of new drugs to fuel 2019 growth of 4 percent to 6 percent, a forecast Narasimhan reiterated on Wednesday.

ttps://m.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/novartis-ceo-lauds-trump-administration-plan-to-overhaul-rebates-1771840?ampMode=1

>>5064589

Indeed and a nice hefty tax deduction they get in the meantime as well..so we pay the ALL of the TAXES and they pay NONE of the TAXES.

>>5064643

Indeed…now there will be moar real vacations for everyday Americans!

>>5064678

Just had a thought cross my mind here…I wonder if the RX companies that have agreed to testify before Congress will be a window to a disclosure for some Cures…hmmm

>>5064702

For certain!