Stephan: Don't think for a moment that the pharmaceutical corporations who are making the vaccines aren't in it for the money, or that even when they are caught killing people that they don't have a tax grift that takes at least some of the corporate pain away. It is a trend that has been going on for decades. The American tax codes are totally crafted to favor the rich, individuals, and corporations alike. This report tells a particularly nasty little story that makes this point.
“While tens of millions of Americans are experiencing extreme economic hardship and dealing with intermittent and often inadequate governmental support for unemployment, food, housing, and small business continuity,” said Robert Weissman of Public Citizen on February 12, 2021, “Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health, and Amerisource-Bergen are laughing all the way to bank.” Credit: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty
Four pharmaceutical corporations that agreed to pay a combined $26 billion to settle lawsuits resulting from a deadly opioid crisis they helped create reportedly plan to recoup a portion of those costs by deducting roughly $4.6 billion of the payouts from their taxes—sparking intense condemnation.
Big Pharma is attempting to make the public cover some of the fines related to lawsuits filed by dozens of state and local governments highlighting the culpability of opioid manufacturers and distributors in the deaths of an estimated 70,000 people per year.
As Public Citizen president Robert Weissman put it in a statement released Friday, “The drug companies are settling with taxpayers (local government entities) and then demanding that taxpayers pay part of the cost (via a federal tax subsidy).”
Rev. Dean
on Sunday, February 14, 2021 at 11:06 am
Everybody sees opium as a bad thing. Actually some of we older people need opium based pills to overcome pains from our disabilities. I am one of those people who needs Hydrocodone to be able to function in my daily life. The worst part of taking this medication is the fact that it is incorporated with Acetaminophen which is very bad for a person’s liver. Scientists have known about this for decades but instead of getting rid of the Acetaminophen, they cut it down from 500mg. to 325mg. That should not be in our pills which we need desperately, just to function in life. In my old Sears-Roebuck catalog from 1897, a person could buy a 4oz. bottle of Laudanum which a pure form of opioid for only $3.00 and that could last an entire month of pain relief with nothing harmful in it.
Rev. Dean
on Sunday, February 14, 2021 at 12:46 pm
P.S.: And back in the 1800’s you did not have to go to a doctor at a cost of $100 and “prove” you have pain which you know you have and if you’re lucky, get a prescription and pay a co-pay of $25 or more for a drug which is harmful to your liver. I must be living in the wrong century; back then life was so simple and it was so cheap to live.
Everybody sees opium as a bad thing. Actually some of we older people need opium based pills to overcome pains from our disabilities. I am one of those people who needs Hydrocodone to be able to function in my daily life. The worst part of taking this medication is the fact that it is incorporated with Acetaminophen which is very bad for a person’s liver. Scientists have known about this for decades but instead of getting rid of the Acetaminophen, they cut it down from 500mg. to 325mg. That should not be in our pills which we need desperately, just to function in life. In my old Sears-Roebuck catalog from 1897, a person could buy a 4oz. bottle of Laudanum which a pure form of opioid for only $3.00 and that could last an entire month of pain relief with nothing harmful in it.
P.S.: And back in the 1800’s you did not have to go to a doctor at a cost of $100 and “prove” you have pain which you know you have and if you’re lucky, get a prescription and pay a co-pay of $25 or more for a drug which is harmful to your liver. I must be living in the wrong century; back then life was so simple and it was so cheap to live.