Home | Shop | Send Us Info | Subscribe | Advertise | Help |

New Players -- but some things just don't change in the Senate.

Guy T. Sturino
May 07, 2007
It was another less than stellar performance by the Senate. The Dorgan/Snowe amendment to allow re-importation of prescription drugs passed the Senate on a voice vote. Unfortunately it was fed a poison pill by supporters of the pharmaceutical industry prior to being passed. An amendment by Thad Cochran (R-MS) provided that the administration must certify that re-importation would be safe and less costly before they can be re-imported. This amendment had been attached to previous bills and as a result re-importation has never become a reality. The amendment passed 49 to 40.

For the most part, the general Republican backing for and Democratic opposition to the poison pill was not surprising. However, this amendment had wide bipartisan support. There were several Republican cosponsors of the Dorgan-Snow amendment which had 35 cosigners.

First, here are the Republican Senators who, regardless of their positions on other issues, sent a clear message that they are concerned about Americans having to pay more for prescription drugs than any other country in the world: Susan Collins, Larry Craig, Jim DeMint, Charles Grassley, Trent Lott, Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby, Gordon Smith, Olympia Snowe, John Thune and David Vitter.

Only 28 Democrats voted against the poison pill amendment, and the list of those Democrats who voted for it may surprise many people. It includes many Democratic Senators who have said that they are concerned about the cost of health care for the working class, but today sent a clear message to the contrary. They were: Max Baucus*, Evan Bayh, Maria Cantwell*, Thomas Carper*, Edward Kennedy, John Kerry, Mary Landrieu*, Frank Lautenberg, Blanche Lincoln*, Robert Menendez, Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, Ben Nelson*, John Rockefeller and Ken Salazar.


Senators who did not vote were: Wayne Allard, Joe Biden, Sam Brownbeck, Chris Dodd, Michael Enzi (a manager of the underlying bill), James Inhofe, Tim Johnson (ill), John McCain, Barack Obama, Jack Reed and Jon Tester*. It would appear that many presidential candidates didn’t think their vote was important enough to show up today - or it was simply better to not vote. Either way they weren’t much help to the working class.

In an earlier article I wrote about eleven Democratic Senators who voted against a measure authored by Senator Bernie Sanders which would have rescinded tax cuts for the top 1% in order to fund several necessary programs for the less fortunate. The (*) above indicates those Democrats who have now voted against two measures intended to make life a little easier for everyone. Three Senators who had voted against rescinding tax cuts but voted in favor of the Dorgan/Snowe amendment were Bill Nelson, Jim Webb and Ron Wyden.

By giving the last word on reimportation to an administration that has stood firm against it now allow those Senators who don’t want reimportation to be able to say later that they voted for the reimportation amendment. Politics as usual, working folks watch your wallets.

Better yet, watch your vote.
Print Email
Bookmark and Share

Guy T. Sturino

My Name is Guy Sturino and I came to be in November of 1940 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. By the time I reached six years old my dad was back home and we had defeated both Germany and Japan.

The country was riding high. Sure, times were tough. Both my parents worked fairly regularly, but still we moved often and we spent a few of those early years in government project housing. TV came to our house when I was eleven.

When I was twelve I became an alter boy at Holy Rosary Catholic Church. Like all alter boys, I even thought someday I'd become a Priest. By the time I finished high school that illusion was gone and with it my fondness for the Catholic church. But, that's another story all by itself.

In high school Civics class we learned that we were the greatest. We learned that Democracy meant capitalism and Communism was the same as socialism. We were taught that Democracy was good and that socialism was bad. At the same time Joe McCarthy was telling us that Communists were hiding under our beds and if the bomb didn't get us those Commies sure would.

I took all that with me when I joined the Marines in '59 when my education really got started. In Thailand I learned about Buddhism, and how people who had very little and worked from dawn to dusk every day were the happiest and most sharing as a group that I had met up until that time. In Japan I saw and lived in a culture built around working together to achieve great things as opposed to the do-it-yourself rugged individualism expected in the American culture. Along the way I got to visit the Philippines and South Korea.

When I came home in '63 I drove a bread truck for a while and then hand poured aluminum in a foundry until the GI bill was signed in '65. I got a degree in Applied Science and Technology and went to work for American Motors. After a few years as a chassis engineer I moved over to quality control and eventually traveled Europe assessing quality systems in supplier manufacturing facilities. By the time I had interacted with workers in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy, as well as China, South Korea and Japan, I had a totally new perspective on what was a fair return for a days work.

I worked for a couple of other companies before vacationing in Virginia Beach with my daughter and deciding that the tickets in my pocket for Riyadh and New Deli were simply too much after just returning from Beijing. I found a pizza shop for sale and bought it. Unfortunately I wasn't very successful as a restaurateur, and took a job as a substitute teacher for a year.

Undaunted, I applied for a job as a teacher assistant the next year and got it. Two years later I was teaching algebra in an alternative high school where, at 62 years old I retired.
I already had a serious interest in politics, but having the time to actually watch the House and the Senate on Cspan really got my interest. I learned things about our government that I certainly never heard about in school and I had to wonder why not. About 2005 I decided to begin sharing my thoughts on the web. By the middle of 2007 I sort of lost, not the interest, but the drive to communicate.

Recent events have changed that.

Got Debt? Get Debt Wise.