Amgen's Settlement
smartertimes.com

A front-page article highlights a provision in the fiscal cliff bill that gives the drug company Amgen two additional years to sell the medicine Sensipar under less restrictive Medicare reimbursement rules. It's a useful article in that it shines a light on this obscure provision and how it became law. But it has a few flaws.

"The bill gives Amgen an additional two years to sell Sensipar without government controls," the article says. That inaccurately suggests that no government controls at all apply. There are still plenty of government controls — the sales are subject to all the usual anti-fraud provisions, the FDA's rules, and Medicare's rules. They just aren't subject to inclusion in the new bundled payment system for kidney dialysis.

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Sierra Club Boycotts Facebook
smartertimes.com

A Times article about the Sierra Club ceasing its ad spending on Facebook because of the involvement of a Facebook founder in a pro-immigration-reform group that aired a commercial about the Keystone XL pipeline includes the following passage:

Cathy Duvall, director of strategic partnerships at the Sierra Club, said her group was especially disappointed to see the technology industry adopt a strategy that was more typical of old-fashioned, brass-knuckled Washington lobbying.

"When the ads came out they were politics as usual and divisive and pitting one issue against another," Ms. Duvall said. "We were really surprised that Silicon Valley would be moving into the political space by doing the worst of business-as-usual politics."

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Koch and Wisconsin
futureofcapitalism.com

The New York Times has an article that runs under the headline "Billionaire Brothers' Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute." It includes this:

To Bob Edgar, a former House Democrat who is now president of Common Cause, a liberal group that has been critical of what it sees as the rising influence of corporate interests in American politics, the Koch brothers are using their money to create a façade of grass-roots support for their favorite causes.

"This is a dangerous moment in America history," Mr. Edgar said. "It is not that these folks don't have a right to participate in politics. But they are moving democracy into the control of more wealthy corporate hands."

Read More...

Sierra Club Boycotts Facebook
smartertimes.com

A Times article about the Sierra Club ceasing its ad spending on Facebook because of the involvement of a Facebook founder in a pro-immigration-reform group that aired a commercial about the Keystone XL pipeline includes the following passage:

Cathy Duvall, director of strategic partnerships at the Sierra Club, said her group was especially disappointed to see the technology industry adopt a strategy that was more typical of old-fashioned, brass-knuckled Washington lobbying.

"When the ads came out they were politics as usual and divisive and pitting one issue against another," Ms. Duvall said. "We were really surprised that Silicon Valley would be moving into the political space by doing the worst of business-as-usual politics."

Read More...

Amgen's Settlement
smartertimes.com

A front-page article highlights a provision in the fiscal cliff bill that gives the drug company Amgen two additional years to sell the medicine Sensipar under less restrictive Medicare reimbursement rules. It's a useful article in that it shines a light on this obscure provision and how it became law. But it has a few flaws.

"The bill gives Amgen an additional two years to sell Sensipar without government controls," the article says. That inaccurately suggests that no government controls at all apply. There are still plenty of government controls — the sales are subject to all the usual anti-fraud provisions, the FDA's rules, and Medicare's rules. They just aren't subject to inclusion in the new bundled payment system for kidney dialysis.

Read More...

Koch and Wisconsin
futureofcapitalism.com

The New York Times has an article that runs under the headline "Billionaire Brothers' Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute." It includes this:

To Bob Edgar, a former House Democrat who is now president of Common Cause, a liberal group that has been critical of what it sees as the rising influence of corporate interests in American politics, the Koch brothers are using their money to create a façade of grass-roots support for their favorite causes.

"This is a dangerous moment in America history," Mr. Edgar said. "It is not that these folks don't have a right to participate in politics. But they are moving democracy into the control of more wealthy corporate hands."

Read More...