Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation to allow Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada, where they are cheaper even though some are made in America. Senator Cory Booker, the faux-progressive, voted with the Republicans to protect the profits of Big Pharma.
“BERNIE SANDERS INTRODUCED a very simple symbolic amendment Wednesday night, urging the federal government to allow Americans to purchase pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, where they are considerably cheaper. Such unrestricted drug importation is currently prohibited by law.
“The policy has widespread support among Americans: one Kaiser poll taken in 2015 found that 72 percent of Americans are in favor of allowing for importation. President-elect Donald Trump also campaigned on a promise to allow for importation.
“The Senate voted down the amendment 52-46, with two senators not voting. Unusually, the vote was not purely along party lines: 13 Republicans joined Sanders and a majority of Democrats in supporting the amendment, while 13 Democrats and a majority of Republicans opposed it.
“One of those Democrats was New Jersey’s Cory Booker, who is considered a rising star in the party and a possible 2020 presidential contender.”
Although Booker voted against DeVos, he supports vouchers and charters, like DeVos.
(Thanks to Arthur Goldstein for the tip.)
*I made a spelling error in original headline and typed Tepublicans. Maybe that was short-hand for Tea Party Republicans.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hopefully this blocks Brooker from ever being the Democratic nominee. Brooker is a strange type. A Wall St mentality unless in involves black identity politics. Zero concept of class.
This will be his Wall Street Speeches issue.
A true rising star according to Howard Dean . Barf bag please
Obama also had a Wall Street mentality, which is why he chose Wall Street insiders to run his Treasury Department and why he expressed admiration for the CEO’s of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase (who were paid huge bonuses after their companies defrauded investors to the tune of billions of dollars)
Like Republicans, most Democrats just see — and vote for — what they want to see.
And Hilary Clinton also has a Wall Street mentality.
I wish I could disagree. Too many politicians from formerly progressive parties see politics through an identity politics lense. The modern corporation in the Wall St or silicon valley variety has little problem with race or gender or LGBTQ issues. The real cleavage in society and the REAL test of a progressive politician is CLASS and it’s remedy in serious income redistribution. This can be in the form of the social wage – medicate 4 all, free tuition, but also in the form of higher minimum wages, pensions.
If you don’t support serious income redistribution you are a faux progressive. IMHO.
That is why I support the Bernie Sauder and Jeremy Corbyns of the world.
The Hillary’s and the Cory of the world simply do not have enough ‘on offer’ to motivate the base.
It is as if the poor and working class base of the Democrats is sending a profound message to the leaders. Make dramatic changes in my standard of living or I can’t be bothered to get out of bed to vote for you.
Milwaukee, Detroit -Wayne Co, Philly, Cleveland, just did not come out for HRC in ghe way they needed to because she did not appeal to them.
Corbyn in UK tried a new strategy. Stop the Tony Blair ‘centrist’ strategy and put forward a very tough hard hitting socialist platform and received the highest vote Labour received in decades. Why? Because they drove out the base. It was actually worth voting.
“Milwaukee, Detroit -Wayne Co, Philly, Cleveland, just did not come out for HRC in ghe way they needed to because she did not appeal to them.”
Amen
Another quotable quote by Doug Little: “It is as if the poor and working class base of the Democrats is sending a profound message to the leaders. Make dramatic changes in my standard of living or I can’t be bothered to get out of bed to vote for you.”
This caveat, tho’: my 20-something sons, who are definitely working-class despite BA’s– Sanders-voters in primary– most definitely made it out of bed to vote for Hillary against Trump. Youngest even got on FB (during a hockey game?!) to exhort his cohort to the polls before they closed.) Education helps.
My son and daughter did not vote for Hillary…we are in CA so it dId not matter as much…they could not go from Bernie to Hillary…
This happened in January.
Booker explained the vote well, and he cosponsored a bill with Bernie right after this.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cory-booker-bernie-sanders-drug-re-importation_us_58b5a8ade4b060480e0c2b52
John,
I stand corrected. The bill was introduced and defeated in January. Forgive me for not believing in Cory Booker’s overnight conversion. He has been a tool of Wall Street and corporate interests for a long time. I recall a few years back when he was honored by the rightwing corporate Manhattan Institution for his staunch support for vouchers.
Of course he does. On a day when our friends in the U.K. have reminded us that liberals/progressives/socialists have success when they run on their principles. If you are offended by profanity, please don’t watch the video below. If not, substitute “Bookerite” for “Blairite.”
Love this! Thank you for posting, GregB!
Booker thinks he has a chance to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020, so he is lining up his allies and lining his pockets for that run.
Like every other Corporate Democrat, he must not be trusted.
Yes, well, he won’t be getting my support, my money, or my vote.
I am sick and tired of the Democrats in Name Only. The faux Democrats.
As I have said before, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me.”
If they support vouchers and unaccountable charter schools, if they are against Americans getting cheaper drugs from Canada, if they have a Wall Street mentality, then the heck with them.
Booker has been touring college campuses around the country courting the youth vote. Let’s hope young people see through his act.
They were sharp enough to see beyond the fake Labourites in the UK. Insert Corey Booker, Andrew Cuomo, & Clinistas here:
*Thanks,GregB for reminding us of Jeremy Pie.
New Jersey, always a great friend of the Big Pharma.
You are so right. Our NJ family, one of whose children suffered from both mental & physical chronic diseases– was terribly affected by low-bar clinical stds/ profit-über-all Big Pharma. I quickly learned to be very careful w/ whom I shared our experiences, as 1/3+ of our nbrs’ livelihoods depend on BigPharma. Around here it’s like the company store.
John is right. Booker about-faced after media backlash/ resistance protests got loud & regular in Jan/Feb. Now he– & Casey of Pa where BigPharm also has BigPull– are co-sponsoring S-469 w/Sanders & Klobuchar.
Dems have a window for this kind of action on the classically-Dem issues Trumpeted to working-classers in campaign – health, jobs, infrastructure: Trump pitched populism to the little guy (the bait), McConnell/ Ryan propose tax-cuts for rich paid for by junking safety-net (the switch). There’s a chunk of re-election-vulnerable Reps who won’t back measures that directly impact their voters. So measures can’t pass in Senate w/o the dozen+ sleepwalking biz-as-usual neolib Dems like Booker. They need to be singled out & highlighted & resisted by grass-roots progressives.
Cory Booker has some things going for him. Privatization of education is one of his problem areas. Is he getting money from the pharmaceutical industry too?
” Is he getting money from the pharmaceutical industry too?” Yes. At least he was prior to joining Sanders in supporting drug importation. It’s eighth in the ranking of industries that have provided him support in the list below:
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2016&cid=N00035267&type=I&newmem=N
Then, again, compare a Google search for “dairy industry sanders” and “dairy industsry booker:
As you suggest, one needs to weigh the positives and negatives for any candiadate.
The dairy industry?
Now there’s an evil industry if ever there was one.
What could be worse than a bunch of farmers with pitch forks?
“What could be worse than a bunch of farmers with pitch forks?”
Mmmm, perhaps you could do something with fork/pork?
your fan, Stephen
Really? Really???
You’re comparing the dairy industry with the pharmaceutical industry?
Forget about that one, it’s not at all the same damned thing.
Zorba: “Really? Really???
“You’re comparing the dairy industry with the pharmaceutical industry?”
The two are rather more intimately intertwined than you may realize.
In case you missed the obit, Old MacDonald died more than 50 years ago.
Young MacDonald has a factory
E-I-E-I-O
And on his farm he has quite a few thousand cows
E-I-E-I-O
with a bovine somatotropin here
And an ionophore there,
Here’s an antibiotic, theres an antibiotic
Everywhere an antibiotic
Yound Maconald has a factory
E-I-E-I-O
You think I exaggerate? Check out this article in the Journal “Infection Ecology and Epidemiology”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4033321/
Here’s the abstract:
“Antimicrobial resistance is threatening humans and animals worldwide. Biosecurity and 1-year usage of antibiotics on a dairy concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) in NY State, USA, were mapped: how much antibiotics were used, for what purpose, and whether any decrease could be warranted. Approximately 493 kg antibiotics was used, of which 376 kg was ionophores (monensin and lasalocides), 79 kg penicillin, 16.5 kg lincosamides, 8.0 kg aminoglycosides, 7.7 kg sulfamides, 3.4 kg cephalosporin, 2 kg macrolides, 0.7 kg amphenicols, and 0.1 kg fluoroquinolones. Usage reduction by 84% was realistic without compromising the animal welfare. Further reduction could be possible by improving the biosecurity and by utilizing antibiotic sensitivity testing.”
You do realize, I hope, that not every dairy cow, or beef cattle, or pig, or chicken, or sheep, are raised on factory farms and stuffed with antibiotics and hormones?
Yes, way too many are, and this needs to stop.
However, you need to visit up here where I live and I can introduce you to my neighbors- small, family owned and operated farm owners, raising dairy cattle, beef cattle, chickens, sheep, etc, without the whole factory farm conditions.
As a matter of fact, before we got too old, we raised beef cattle ourselves. Grass fed, pasture raised, hormone-free, antibiotic-free. I have a neighbor right down the road raising her dairy cattle the same damned way.
And I would say that, although the factory farms may be the majority, there are still a whole lot of small, family farms. The pharmaceutical industry has no equivalent to those small family farms. (And before you say “Oh, but the small drug compounding companies,” look up all the problems they have had.)
Booker is a Wall St shill & shouldn’t be called a Democrat. My sources inside of the NJ Democratic party have no respect for him.
A sham, Booker.
I have been criticized for my criticism of Booker, because there is a mentality within the party that Democrats must support all Democrat incumbents, but I am standing up anyways; I can’t not say something especially because Cory appears at every path to be desperately attempting to find a pathway to the Presidency in 2020. Cory got hit by a train on not backing Bernie’s bill in January, but he still thinks he can get away with his charter school and voucher ties by distancing himself from Betsy Devos which he has served on the same board as. It is important to understand what is going on in New Jersey, though to understand how those not supportive of public ed get there.
New Jersey Education Association took a blow in charter school proxy battle with Cory Booker in 19% voter turnout election on June 6. 😦
“The NJEA,the state’s largest teachers union, is still supporting McKnight’s running mate, Nicholas Chiaravalloti, but its local, the JCEA, rescinded its endorsement of him after the David Tepper-backed Better Education for Kids sent out literature promoting him. The NJEA did not rescind its endorsement, however. Zadroga-Hart is running with fellow teacher Chirstopher Munoz. ” — From Politico Article
“McKnight, the top vote getter in the primary, fought through several negative mailers paid for by the New Jersey Education Association …
However, it made no difference at the end of the day, as the incumbent won in definitive fashion.
Chiaravalloti, a former state director for U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), powered through a sexting scandal plaguing Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis and also pulled out all the stops by having U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) do a robocall yesterday (h/t InsiderNJ).
Although he also faced some criticism for not bringing more school funding to LD-31, the incumbent from the Peninsula City, who same politicos called vulnerable leading up to today, had no problem finding support at the polls.
Also as of 9p.m., Chiaravalloti was right behind his running mate with 6,637 votes with about 75 percent of the vote tallied.
Hart, a veteran operative for the Jersey City Education Association, suffers a tough loss after running a full-fledged campaign since March, notching 3,204 votes with 3/4 of the machine votes counted.
Her running mate, Bayonne Board of Education Trustee Christopher Munoz, came in last place, totaling 2,089 with around 75 percent of the machine votes counted.” — From Hudson County View Article
Correction notes on my post: Bernie’s bill should read Klobuchar / Sanders Amendment
In New Jersey primary, 19% was Governor’s vote totals in primary compared to 2016 vote totals
Jorge, copy your first paragraph up there. Am still wondering what happened to all that money Zuckerberg donated to Newark PUBLIC (is that correct?) schools, with a BIG announcement on…Oprah, live (starring Mark, Cory &–best friend of public schools & teachers–Chris Chriiiiiiiistiieee {as Oprah would say}!!!).
Oh, & the reason Booker voted against Bernie’s resolution is because he is one of the Top Ten senatorial recipients of Big Pharma $$$$ (might have been top at, I believe, almost $250K). BTW–list includes a # of those Demoncrats who voted against (guess who? Why, Sen Joe Manchin, e.g., whose daughter, Heather {forget her last name}, CEO of Mylan–you know, EpiPen maker/price inflation big time.)
“Rising star?” Rather, still a CHARlatan.