By David Corn,Politics Daily
Obama breaks another campaign promise
If I had been at the White House daily press briefing on Thursday,I would have asked an obvious question:
Robert,The New York Times reports that the White House has cut a behind-the-scenes deal with drug industry lobbyists to prevent Congress from squeezing more than $80 billion in cost savings from Big Pharma. Where were the television cameras when White House aides were working out this agreement with the lobbyists?
Flash-back to the 2008 campaign trail:Then-candidate Barack Obama promised a new level of transparency in government —particularly concerning the sausage-making that would produce any health care reform legislation. "We’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN,"he said,"so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents,and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies."