Defenestrating Thoughts from the Bivouac

This article on healthcare “reform” from a couple weeks ago is fascinating in a rage-inducing sort of way:

WASHINGTON — A measure to allow the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and some other countries fell short in the Senate Tuesday night, but lawmakers were working on other ways to squeeze concessions from the pharmaceutical industry.

So our Senators had to ask the drug companies if Americans could have permission to buy medicine from non-American companies.

A free people should be able to voluntarily buy goods from whomever they want. The ban on importing drugs is nothing more than corporate welfare thanks to the industry’s liberal bribing of our Congressmen.

The drug companies claim that safety is an issue. But an amendment to allow importation of medicine if it has FDA approval was voted down in the Senate as well, which means the concern about “safety” isn’t valid.

I know we’re told that our economic and political system is Capitalism, but it’s very untrue. Sadly, we really have a system of Corporatism, where companies essentially run the government and write the laws. Heck, even Michael “I hate Capitalism” Moore agrees.

In this case, American pharmaceutical companies bought Congress and got a law passed that makes it illegal to buy products from their competitors. And it can be even more blatant: sometimes companies just get big piles of taxpayer money. A study that shouldn’t surprise anyone found that banks that spent more on lobbying were more likely to get bailouts.

An obvious, simple fix for healthcare is to let Americans voluntarily buy medicine from whoever they and their doctor feel is best. This alone with save Americans over $8,000,000,000 a year! But it’s not on the table; Congress doesn’t work for the people, Congress works for wealthy and powerful corporate interests.

But, don’t lay all the blame on the companies. The majority of the blame should be on our leaders in Washington. If they weren’t for sale in the first place, then they couldn’t be bought.