Booker & ALL Democrats Voted For WYDEN Amendment. Sanders Bill Didn't Do Enough

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27. Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act in the Senate and House

These are full, stand-alone bills dealing with the issue--not amendments to budget acts--and have been introduced by bipartisan lawmakers in the Senate and House (identical bills) for several years. The Senate bill was re-introduced again on January 9 (I think that's what's done if a bill got stuck in committee in the previous Congress).

May 05, 2015

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John McCain (R-AZ) today applauded the introduction of the Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act in the House of Representatives, identical legislation to the bipartisan bill that the Senators reintroduced this Congress. The bill, which was introduced by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), would allow individuals to safely import prescription drugs from Canada, and create major savings for consumers by bringing greater competition into the pharmaceutical market. ... Under the legislation, imported prescription drugs would have to be purchased from an approved Canadian pharmacy and dispensed by a licensed pharmacist. Drugs imported under this bill would be the same dosage, form, and potency as drugs in the U.S., but at a significant savings to U.S. consumers.

http://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/2015/5/senators-klobuchar-and-mccain-applaud-introduction-of-safe-and-affordable-drugs-from-canada-act-in-house-of-representatives

Note the crazy bipartisan names on these bills: McCain-Klobuchar; Pingree-Rohrbacher (!).

But a few loudmouthed troublemakers have decided to focus on one senator (of 13) on one attempt at an amendment sneak into a budget bill. I don't remember the outrage when Elizabeth Warren and Al Franken--and Amy Klobuchar--voted against the medical device tax because of opposition from device manufacturers in their states:

In seeking to dismantle the Affordable Care Act piece by piece, congressional Republicans have placed a high priority on repealing a tax on medical devices that would raise some $29 billion over the next 10 years to help ensure that health reform will not increase the deficit. Repealing the tax is a terrible idea that has been given a veneer of respectability by support from liberal Democrats in states with large concentrations of device manufacturers. They include Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken of Minnesota and Representative Ron Kind of Wisconsin, among others. President Obama ought to veto any bill that eliminates the tax.

The health reform law imposes a modest 2.3 percent tax on sales of medical devices, to be paid by the manufacturers or importers. It applies to such products as X-ray machines, M.R.I. scanners, pacemakers and artificial hip and knee joints but not to eyeglasses, contact lenses and hearing aids. The $29 billion to be raised from the device industry is less than the amounts to be raised from insurers and drug companies, all of which will benefit from increased business under the act and should pay their fair shares of the cost. If the lost revenues from a repeal of the device tax are offset by reduced spending on other health care programs, as they might well be, many patients could suffer medical or financial harm.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/opinion/no-case-for-killing-the-medical-device-tax.html

Okay, why is this smear campaign of shocked outrage occurring over this amendment try? (especially when separate, comprehensive bipartisan bills in the Senate and House are still in play?). Is it because it's easier to pick off the only black Democratic senator? Was his vote here any worse than those of Warren, Franken, and Klobuchar with respect to the medical device tax? Why weren't they called vile corporatists, and "the reason why Democrats lose"?

We all need to be on guard against these uninformed, narrow jeremiads that try to selectively target individual legislators. They are not coming from the right places.