[Plura-list] A dark money group is lying about Medicare cuts

[Cory Doctorow]

Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/11/rope-a-dope/

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This Sat (Aug 13), I'm co-presenting a program item at Defcon (Las Vegas) called "Literal Self-Pwning: Why Patients - and Their Advocates - Should Be Encouraged to Hack, Improve, and Mod Med Tech" with  Christian "quaddi" Dameff & Jeff “r3plicant” Tully MD:

https://forum.defcon.org/node/242205

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Today's links

* A dark money group is lying about Medicare cuts: Who the fuck are the "American Prosperity Alliance?"

* Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.

* This day in history: 2012, 2017, 2021

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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✴️ A dark money group is lying about Medicare cuts

The "American Prosperity Alliance" does not exist, except as an anonymously controlled bank account that has paid for the production and dissemination of a slick ad that spreads the falsehood that the Democrats have cut $300b from Medicare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xCep6NvbhE

Let me repeat: this is a lie. What "Americans for Prosperity" is talking about here is a provision in the bill that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices, rather than simply paying whatever Big Pharma wants to charge. This practice is why Americans pay more for their drugs than, say, Canadians:

https://personalimportation.org/dramatic-drug-price-differences-canada-vs-us/

To be clear: the new bill will curb the eye-water public price-gouging that Big Pharma enjoys, and halt the transfer of $300b in public money to pharma companies' shareholders, by allowing Medicare to bargain to get prices similar to those paid by other governments in countries like Australia, Canada, and the UK.

There is no universe in which this a $300b *cut* to Medicare. It's like the Dems have pledged to halt $300b in *fraud* and the American Prosperity Alliance went to the country's elderly and sick and screamed: "They're cutting your benefits!" In fact, it's not *like* that - it *is* that.

Who the fuck are the American Prosperity Alliance? No one knows. They're a dark money group. Their website consists of a link to their deceptive ad, a form to sign up for their mailing list...and nothing else.

https://prosperityalliance.org/

As Lou Jacobson writes for *Politifact*/*Kaiser Health News*, this is just the latest version of a torrent of dark money disinformation that makes this claim.

https://khn.org/news/article/senate-reconciliation-bill-300-billion-medicare-drug-price-negotiation-fact-check/

For example, the West Virginia TV ad from the Center for Innovation and Free Enterprise (CIFE) in which an elderly woman was literally *condemned to die* by her doctor, who explained that it was all because the Democrats were going to negotiate drug prices:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/drug-companies-trying-to-scare-seniors-democratic-economic-plan_n_62ec6823e4b09fecea4c8dbb?9t

(CIFE claims to be for "free markets," which, apparently, is a system whereby a cartel of multinationals who rely on government-issued monopolies - AKA 'patents' - get to demand literally any sum from the federal government and are assured of receiving it.)

As @Robillard and @CitizenCohn wrote for @HuffPost, similar claims came from "America Next," @AmerComm and "The  60-Plus Association" (which is like a far-right prepper version of the AARP). All of them have historically taken money from @Phrma, the lobby group for Big Pharma.

The disinformation would be laughable if it wasn't so depraved. Telling old people that giving Medicare an extra $300b to spend on patients is a *$300b cut* to care is straight-up lying - and thanks to the Supreme Court's *Citizens United* decision, the dark money cowards funding the American Prosperity Alliance get to lurk in the shadows. If they're so committed to "American Prosperity," why do they need to disguise their identities? Is it that they are planning a big reveal later that we'll all be delighted by and they just don't want to spoil the surprise?

The irony here is that the Medicare spending curbs in the Inflation Reduction Act are *incredibly* weaksauce, barely denting pharma's profiteering. As @ThomasNeuburger writes, this only kicks in as of 2026, and it only affects *ten* drugs.

https://neuburger.substack.com/p/the-ira-drug-price-victory

Neuburger is citing a summary from @thehill, which adds that this provision only applies to drugs that are have been around for at least nine years (13 years for biologics):

https://thehill.com/homenews/3592694-heres-whats-in-the-inflation-reduction-act-the-sweeping-health-and-climate-bill-passed-sunday/

The number of affected drugs climbs to 20 after another five years. That means that, starting in a decade, Medicare will be able to negotiate prices on 20 drugs - out of *20,000*. This plan *won't* bring down the prices of the most notoriously jacked-up medicine, including #insulin, #Eliquis, and #Humira, a drug that was repeatedly re-patented through useless "formulation changes" that were designed by @McKinsey, who designed a program that gave away Iphones to @abbvie scientists who came up with useless molecular changes as part of a perpetual patent scheme:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/25/strikesgiving/#cool-story-pharma-bro

In other words, Big Pharma has given up *almost nothing* in this bill, and they are *still* running around, lying their heads off like they had just been nationalized by Party Secretary Biden and had all their top scientists sent north to work on re-education farms.

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✴️ Hey look at this

* Guardians of the Galaxy: The Live Immersive Experience — Secret Cinema https://tickets.secretcinema.org/guardians-of-the-galaxy/

* Growing an Appreciation for Plants https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=6481

* Brooklyn Bar Menu Generator https://www.brooklynbarmenus.com (h/t Nelson Minar)

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✴️ This day in history

#10yrsago Beck’s new album is sheet-music only https://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader

#10yrsago WIPO’s Broadcasting Treaty is back: a treaty to end the public domain, fair use and Creative Commons https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/08/negotiations-2014-wipo-broadcasting-treaty-are-back

#10yrsago Pussy Riot’s closing statement https://olenskae.tumblr.com/post/29137327674/yekaterina-samutsevich-closing-statement-at-the

#5yrsago Ajit Pai just stacked the FCC’s advisory panel with dingo babysitters from big telcoms https://www.thedailybeast.com/almost-all-of-fccs-new-advisory-panel-works-for-telecoms

#5yrsago 20 year old advice on helping people with computers is still relevant todayhttps://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/agre/how-to-help.html

#5yrsago 7 years later, Sun Microsystems cofounder Vinod Khosla loses bid to privatize public beach 	https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/10/martins-beach-california-public-vinod-khosla

#5yrsago Wells Fargo also gouged small businesses on credit-card fees https://consumerist.com/2017/08/11/wells-fargo-accused-of-overcharging-small-businesses/

#1yrago IRS leaks reveal billions reaped through ultra-wealthy lobbying on the tax bill https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/11/the-canada-variant/#shitty-man-of-history-theory

#1yrago Canada's got the world's worst internet ideas https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/11/the-canada-variant/#no-canada

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✴️ Colophon

Today's top sources: Naked Capitalism (https://nakedcapitalism.com/).

Currently writing:

* The Bezzle, a Martin Hench noir thriller novel about the prison-tech industry. Yesterday's progress: 516 words (31260 words total)

* The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, a nonfiction book about interoperability for Verso. Yesterday's progress: 502 words (27452 words total)

* Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. (92849 words total) - ON PAUSE

* A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

* Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, WAITING FOR EXPERT REVIEW

* Moral Hazard, a short story for MIT Tech Review's 12 Tomorrows. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

* Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FINAL DRAFT COMPLETE

* A post-GND utopian novel, "The Lost Cause."  FINISHED

* A cyberpunk noir thriller novel, "Red Team Blues."  FINISHED

Currently reading: Analogia by George Dyson.

Latest podcast: View a SKU: Let’s Make Amazon Into a Dumb Pipe https://craphound.com/news/2022/07/31/view-a-sku-lets-make-amazon-into-a-dumb-pipe/

Upcoming appearances:

* DEFCON 30 (Las Vegas), Aug 13
https://defcon.org/html/defcon-30/dc-30-index.html

* Talking "Radicalized" with the Building Bridges for America Book Club, Aug 15
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* Launch for Motherboard's Terraform anthology, Vice offices (Los Angeles), Aug 18
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* Radical Interoperability: An Internet Disassembly Manual, Aug 29 15h (Burning Man Center Camp)

* Chokepoint Capitalism: a Better Deal for Creative Labor, Aug 30, 13h (Burning Man Palenque Norte, 915 and B)

* Interview with Bunnie Huang on the Precursor and Trusting Trust, Aug 31, 12h (Burning Man Liminal Labs, 945 and Rod's)

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Recent appearances:

* DRM Secretly Polices You (Daily Tech News Show)
https://dailytechnewsshow.com/2022/07/29/drm-secretly-polices-you-dtns-4327/

* Bricking Tractors (Inside Agri-Turf)
https://inside-agriturf.captivate.fm/episode/bricking-tractors-with-cory-doctorow

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Latest book:

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59 (print edition: https://bookshop.org/books/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism/9781736205907) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

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Upcoming books:

* Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin, nonfiction/business/politics, Beacon Press, September 2022

* Red Team Blues: "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books, April 2023

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