In the last few days two Sanders Amendments have been voted on. The first was an Amendment protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It failed on a tie vote: 49-49 with only 1 Republican supporting (Collins from Maine).
The other was a bill allowing the importation of drugs. As a reminder, this is not trivial. Drug costs are substantially lower in Canada than in the US. If you could legally import them it would create price pressure here.
In another thread I asked if Progressive Politics was even possible given Democratic reliance on big money donations.
This vote suggests it isn’t. Of course I can hear the cries against “purity tests” already.
You can see the corruption caused by big money. The bill failed 46-52. There were 13 Democratic No’s. Some are predictable – both NJ Senators, who essentially represent Pharma, were against it. Both Senators from Washington voted no – and I don’t honestly know why.
Democratic No’s
Bennett
Booker
Cantwell
Carper
Casey
Coons
Donnelly
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Menendez
Murray
Tester
Warner
Some endangered incumbents in that list. They are making the calculation that the donations are more important than the vote. I suspect after the election in 2018 they will have raised substantial money from Pharma.
It gathered substantial GOP support :
Collins
Cruz
Flake
Grassley
Heller
Kennedy
Lee
McCain
Murkowski
Paul
Thune