No Breaks For the Elderly-- atleast not any time soon

The Democrats porposal to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans was blocked in the Senate on Wednesday, April 18th.

Although 55 senators were on board for the new propsal, the Democrats could not muster enough support to get the 60 votes needed for the bill to pass. Six republicans did support the vote but in the end 42 senators voted against the idea. The Republican party was even prepared to filibuster the Senate bill but didn't have to.

In many ways this decisions can be chalked up to the power of the industry. The big companies have more market power being able to negotiate in the private sector than having this be something that is done at the national level. As Senator Amy Kloubuchar from Minnesota said it, "the power of big pharma is still a presence in the halls of Congress"

This goes to show how much the government is influenced by industries. In addition it shows how in the Senate in order to get a bill passed you need some major support from the minorty party representation.