Democrats Doing Big Pharma’s Bidding Are Being Rewarded

House Democrats say they aren’t sabotaging their party’s drug pricing plan. But their recent donation hauls from Big Pharma suggest otherwise.

Protect Our Care Flies A Plane Banner Over San Diego Urging Rep. Scott Peters To Support Lowering Drug Prices, As Constituents And Activists Hold Multiple Events In His District On Thursday

A protest held in San Diego urging Representative Scott Peters to support lowering drug prices. (Jerod Harris / Getty Images for Protect Our Care)


The pharma-funded Democrats working to stop their party’s plan to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices say they are being misrepresented. Amid outcry from their constituents, these lawmakers have been indignantly telling local voters they are the people who are truly fighting for lower drug prices — even as they block their party’s promised drug pricing legislation. Now, new campaign finance disclosures show that their bait and switch happened as they raked in tens of thousands in campaign cash from pharmaceutical industry donors aiming to keep medicine prices as high as possible.

Representatives Scott Peters (D-CA) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR) voted last month to block Democrats from including their signature drug pricing measure in President Joe Biden’s health care and anti-poverty reconciliation bill, after voting for the same measure in 2019.

In response to constituent protest over their votes against the measure, the lawmakers claimed publicly that they are pursuing a more realistic means of lowering drug prices by proposing a watered-down version of the Democrats’ legislation — and insisted that they’re not doing the bidding of corporate interests.

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