AnarchoNinaAnalyzes<p>Ultimately I feel like I could search high and low for hours without coming up with a worse use of my time than blow-by-blow coverage of the fascist GOP's attempts to pass a nightmare, class war theft and murder budget; while the GOP has experienced some setbacks, it seems extremely likely that Senate Republicans are going to successfully vote to negligently murder labor class Americans to enrich the wealthiest people and companies in our society, at some point very soon. We'll probably talk more about which horrifying parts of the absurdly-named "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" survived this process soon enough, but I think it's safe to say the final version of the bill the Senate sends back to the GOP-controlled House is still going to be a dystopian neofeudalist nightmare that will invariably rack up a huge body count so long as fascists (of various types) control the US government. </p><p>In the meantime, I'd like to offer up a hearty "fuck you" and "thanks for nothing, you absolute maggot" to Martin Heinrich, the Democratic Senator for New Mexico, and the lone non-Republican sponsor of the the ORPHAN Cures Act - a provision included in the GOP's class war reconciliation budget that blocks Medicaid from negotiating prices for any drugs that treat more than one rare disease. </p><p><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/big-pharma-senate-budget-bill" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">commondreams.org/news/big-phar</span><span class="invisible">ma-senate-budget-bill</span></a></p><p>'Heinrich Should Be Ashamed': Lone Senate Dem Helps GOP Deliver Big Pharma Win</p><p>"Among the bill's leading supporters is Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), whose spokesperson announced the parliamentarian's decision to allow the measure in the reconciliation package after previously advising that it be excluded. Heinrich is listed as the legislation's only co-sponsor in the Senate, alongside lead sponsor Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).</p><p>"Sen. Heinrich should be ashamed of prioritizing drug corporation profits over lower medicine prices for seniors and people with disabilities," Steve Knievel, access to medicines advocate at Public Citizen, said in a statement Monday. "Patients and consumers breathed a sigh of relief when the Senate parliamentarian stripped the proposal from Republicans' Big Ugly Betrayal, so it comes as a gut punch to hear that Sen. Heinrich welcomed the reversal and continued to champion a proposal that will transfer billions from taxpayers to Big Pharma."</p><p>"People across the country are demanding lower drug prices and for Medicare drug price negotiations to be expanded, not restricted," Knievel added. "Sen. Heinrich should apologize to his constituents and start listening to them instead of drug corporation lobbyists."</p><p>Look, before any of my libbed-up readers start screaming at me about blaming Democrats for a Republican budget reconciliation bill the GOP technically has the power to force into law, please understand that Heinrich is by no means the only villain in this story; between fifty-three Senate Republicans and nonsensical ruling by the chamber's parliamentarian, this tragedy has plenty of authors. The reality however is that this is a Big Parma price support measure that is unquestionably bad for Americans and public healthcare programs that will have to pay more for vital medicines the government absolutely should be negotiating prices on. How big of a giveaway is it? Well, the Congressional Budget Office says passing this provision will cost Americans roughly $5 trillion (with a t) over the next decade. All of which is of course money that could be spent on providing better healthcare for more people otherwise. This is literally stealing healthcare funding from the American people under the guise of supporting "innovation" and any politician who supports it is absolutely helping some of the most evil corporations in our society rob you fucking blind. The fact that Heinrich co-sponsored this bullshit is really just the neoliberal corruption cherry on top of the fascist corpo-humping shitcake here. </p><p><a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>USPol</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Budget" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Budget</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/OBBBA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>OBBBA</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/GOP" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>GOP</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/USSenate" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>USSenate</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/ClassWar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ClassWar</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/BigPharma" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BigPharma</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Theft" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Theft</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/CorporateWelfare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CorporateWelfare</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Murder" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Murder</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/MartinHeinrich" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MartinHeinrich</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Republicans" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Republicans</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/NewMexico" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NewMexico</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Democrats" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Democrats</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Corruption" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Corruption</span></a></p>