BERN NOTICE: Biden's Super PAC Is Led By Health Care Lobbyists

[brooklynite]

On Wednesday, Joe Biden attacked Bernie for supporting Medicare for All. That same day, we learned that the super PAC bankrolling Biden’s campaign is led by health care industry lobbyists.

Coincidence? You be the judge.

The Intercept and Sludge report that the super PAC’s treasurer is a former Biden aide who is now the CEO of a lobbying firm that has represented health care systems, medical device companies and the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. The lobbying firm notes on its website that “our past and current clients include hospital systems, insurers, medical device companies and advocacy organizations.” The super PAC’s board also includes a lobbyist for the hospital industry.

On the same day that the super PAC launched pro-Biden ads, Biden’s campaign lashed out at Bernie for supporting a Medicare for All system that would reduce the profits of the super PAC leaders’ health care industry clients. Amid weak grassroots fundraising, Biden’s campaign abruptly reversed its opposition to super PACs, effectively green lighting the new super PAC, which can rake in unlimited corporate and billionaire donations.

In response to the attacks, Bernie 2020 campaign manager Faiz Shakir said this:

"At the same time we are learning that Joe Biden has a Super PAC to bankroll his campaign with unlimited donations from corporations and billionaires, he is once again peddling dishonest insurance company talking points about Medicare for All. Biden’s proposal preserves the corporate greed and corruption that rots our health care system, and his plan leaves millions of Americans uninsured.

"When we eliminate premiums, co-payments, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, the overwhelming majority of people will pay less for better health care.

"Will Joe Biden tell the American people how many more of them he’s willing to allow to go bankrupt? How many more people would die because they don’t get to a doctor in time? We need to have the guts to stand up to corporate greed. That’s what this election is about."

At this point, Biden’s allegiance to health insurers and drug companies is not exactly a surprise.

Biden launched his presidential campaign with a fundraiser hosted by the CEO of a private health insurance company. The American Prospect has also noted that “Steve Ricchetti, referred to as Biden's campaign chairman in a published report last month, was a longtime lobbyist for health care and other corporate clients.”

As Vox put it: “The health care industry is betting on Joe Biden in its war against Medicare-for-all.”

Bern after reading,

https://bernie.substack.com/p/bern-notice-bidens-super-pac-is-led

[guillaumeb]

1. And it is a war.

Medicare for All would end the insurance companies control over the system, and hurt the huge profits that they make by denying healthcare to their clients.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread brooklynite.

[George II]

3. Come on...it's not "Biden's Super PAC".

[wasupaloopa]

4. Mama said consider the source. Bernie? Yea who would have guessed?

[Uncle Joe]

7. I'm curious, if you had to guess or perhaps know, which groups did Biden speak to

for two hundred thousand dollars a pop?

(snip)

Since leaving the White House, Biden has reaped millions.

CNBC reported in June 2019 that Biden and his wife, Jill, made more than $15 million combined in 2017 and 2018. And the same month, the Washington Post reported that Biden has made millions of dollars largely from book deals and speaking fees for as much as $200,000 per speech.

The Center for Responsive Politics estimates Biden’s net worth, as of July 2019, at between $2.14 million and $7.92 million.

(snip)


https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/oct/30/joe-biden/fact-checking-joe-bidens-claim-hes-among-poorest-g/

[Cha]

5. sirota who pushed jill stein's LIES on voters

during the General Election? Please.

[lillypaddle]

6. C'mon

Fear monger much? Biden has said all along that he supports ACA with changes and improvements, not M4A.

[emmaverybo]

8. Oh please. Exactly why I can not support Bernie whom I once admired. Sirota et al started in

on Biden before he even announced. Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn about what Bernie says
as I can’t trust his people.

[vsrazdem]

12. Exactly why I can't support Biden in the primary, too chumy with insurance lobbys and banks.

[dem4decades]

9. I prefer my Democratic presidential candidates to be actual Democrats.

[betsuni]

10. So we are supposed to believe that because of a super PAC, Biden said Sanders hasn't told

people about taxes under Medicare for All on Wednesday. As if this has never come up before. That's it?

Come on, needs moar fear and paranoia about how everybody is going to die because of the ACA. Make hospitals scary. Hospitals will stop at nothing to defeat Bernie. How many times have we heard that someone is taken to the hospital and then pronounced dead? A lot. Coincidence? You be the judge.

[Fiendish Thingy]

11. Helloooo, Status Quo...

What's a few million uninsured folks going bankrupt, when there's billions in profits to made?

[vsrazdem]

13. Yes, lets all jump and down to keep the status quo; are we excited yet?

[Demsrule86]

15. Maybe we should stop looking for excitement and actually try winning...MFA is a loser for us.

[vsrazdem]

16. Yea, that worked so well in 2016.

[OldRed2450]

17. Hillary didn't lose in 2016

She was cheated. The evidence is there

[vsrazdem]

18. The result was the same regardless.

[WobblyDem]

19. It's a loser if the intention is to stay in opposition

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/403248-poll-seventy-percent-of-americans-support-medicare-for-all

Medicare For All has:
85% support among Democrats
52% support among Republicans

We could nominate a wheel of cheese and still have a strong campaign if we ran with M4All. Very happy it's our policy and not the Republicans, we'd get thrashed.

[Demsrule86]

14. Biden never made much money in the Senate...unlike all the others...so I really don't care where he

gets the money to beat Trump the monster...he won't owe anyone anything and they know it...obviously with millions of jobs lost the insurance companies don't want someone advocating such a plan as MFA...did you think they would? The purity patrol can go away...and by the way I despise the intercept for good reason.

[myohmy2]

20. this...

...explains a lot...

"At the same time we are learning that Joe Biden has a Super PAC to bankroll his campaign with unlimited donations from corporations and billionaires, he is once again peddling dishonest insurance company talking points about Medicare for All. Biden’s proposal preserves the corporate greed and corruption that rots our health care system, and his plan leaves millions of Americans uninsured."

...paying attention?

...we can do it...