December 28, 2010 05:51 PM UTC

Shannon Csotty, PhRMA, and Speaker McNulty

•  
• by: bullshit!

Shannon Csotty is a well known at the Colorado Capitol. A long time lobbyist for the Kenney Group, most recently in charge of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) account. Some Democrats may have gotten to know Ms. Csotty during this time, as she worked with local groups in support of federal health care reform, which PhRMA supported.

But that could be where the good feelings end. While PhRMA supported the health reform legislation, they have consistently fought against reforms at the state level that would have helped patients at the expense of the pharmaceutical industry’s high profits. Back in October of 2006, Rep. Jack Pommer wrote of PhRMA’s unhelpful influence in a blog post titled “Enough to Make You Sick”:

First, it’s only attacking legislators who voted for drug discounts. They voted for a bill that would make Colorado part of a multi-state buying pool. That pool uses its buying power to negotiate discounts with drug companies. Those discounts save the states money when they buy drugs for Medicaid, and states can pass on those savings to people without insurance. If you have insurance, your insurance company already negotiates discounts.

Second, the ad comes from PhRMA. PhRMA is financed by the big drug companies, like Pfizer, Schering-Plough, Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer and others. PhRMA spends a fortune fighting to keep people from getting discounts on drugs. Why would it attack a legislator for voting against discounts?

To understand that, you have to know that PhRMA is the pharmaceutical industry’s version of the Tobacco Institute. It does the industry’s dirty work so the companies themselves and their executives can (try to) keep their hands clean. That’s what’s going on in Colorado this campaign season. PhRMA is punishing legislators who stood up to its legion of lobbyists…

Sen. Morgan Carroll and other Colorado legislators who have worked on health care issues remember a very different PhRMA than the PhRMA who supported health care reform. As for Ms. Csotty? She’s still listed as PhRMA’s lobbyist, and that’s important because…

I. Colorado must pass a health care exchange bill this year as mandated by federal health reform law. What this bill consists of will determine the workability of health reform in Colorado, and access for hundreds of thousands of Coloradans. In some states, intentionally horrible exchange legislation is being proposed by Republicans in a deliberate attempt to sabotage health care reform.

II. Incoming House Speaker Frank McNulty. Now I am in a very difficult position, because I know something that most of you don’t know, although many at the capitol also know. It was briefly mentioned in the press last month that McNulty went on vacation after the election: this was while some House races were still being counted, and it’s why Rep. Amy Stephens was talking to the press about these races, and not McNulty.

I realize that this blog has a rule against the posting of unsourced information, so I will not attempt to do so. Here is what I am asking of a reporter or somebody (maybe pleading, before it’s too late): ask Frank McNulty who he went on vacation with after the election, and who paid for it. If the answer to those questions does not raise some major, major red flags for you, from an Amendment 41 perspective or a Jack Abramoff perspective, you are not getting what I am trying to tell you.

If I am right, as a reporter can easily confirm, health care reform in Colorado is in grave danger.