For the ADD readers, I’ll boil it down: The Obama Administration cut a secret deal with drug companies – in exchange for $150 million in ads supporting the proposed legislation the drug companies received assurance that no price controls on drugs would be a part of the legislation.

The Hope and Change Government (a.k.a. the most transparent administration ever) went into a closed door meeting with the drug companies and struck a deal where they both win, and we (the people) lose.

So what nefarious right wing pseudo news source published the details of this conspiracy? The New York Times:

The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday.

The unusually large scale of the industry’s commitment to the cause helps explain some of a contentious back-and-forth playing out in recent days between the odd-couple allies over a deal that the White House struck with the industry in June to secure its support. The terms of the deal were not fully disclosed. Both sides had announced that the drug industry would contribute $80 billion over 10 years to the cost of the health care overhaul without spelling out the details.

They told me that if I voted for John McCain the Bush-era practice of closed door meetings with lobbyists ending in secret deals would continue- and they were right.

Noted right wing hack Robert Reich over at Salon.com says this deal undermines democracy.

I’m a strong supporter of universal health insurance, and a fan of the Obama administration. But I’m appalled by the deal the White House has made with the pharmaceutical industry’s lobbying arm to buy their support.

Last week, after being reported in the Los Angeles Times, the White House confirmed it has promised Big Pharma that any healthcare legislation will bar the government from using its huge purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices. That’s basically the same deal George W. Bush struck in getting the Medicare drug benefit, and it’s proven a bonanza for the drug industry. A continuation will be an even larger bonanza, given all the boomers who will be enrolling in Medicare over the next decade. And it will be a gold mine if the deal extends to Medicaid, which will be expanded under most versions of the healthcare bills now emerging from Congress, and to any public option that might be included. (We don’t know how far the deal extends beyond Medicare because its details haven’t been made public.)

Mark this down on your calendar as the day that Robert Reich and Michelle Malkin agree.