Big Pharma won’t win

You win some and you lose some. And anyone who thinks we “lost” on medical marijuana in Wisconsin is wrong. Dead wrong.

This legislative session, we made more progress in passing a medical cannabis law than ever before. In December of 2009 we had a fantastic public hearing that showcased this topic. If you were there, you know what I’m talking about. We packed the largest hearing room in the State Capitol – there was a line out the door of people waiting to testify. In the end, 104 people either registered in favor of the bill and only six logged their opposition.
104 vs. 6 -- we win.

The media took notice of the bill as well. Not only did 10 newspapers endorse the bill with none opposing the bill, but we got more press coverage statewide on this issue than ever before.
10 vs. 0 -- we win.

Four organizations registered in favor of the bill with the Wisconsin ethics board and only two registered against. 4 vs. 2 -- we win.

A Facebook page sprung up in favor of the bill and generated more than 10,000 fans in under two months. To this day, there is still no organized grassroots group working to kill this bill. Activism vs. Apathy -- we win.

Today, Senator Jon Erpenbach, the bill’s other co-author, and I sent a letter to supporters of the bill. We pledge to keep fighting. People’s lives are literally at stake. While the bill did not pass this session, that’s not gonna stop us from advocating for compassionate care for seriously ill patients.

Today, we got a glimpse of what motivates the bill’s key opponents. In today’s Badger Herald, a UW campus newspaper, Wisconsin Medical Society’s Mark Grapentine stated:
“We don’t believe anything you can just grow in your backyard … is really the best way to go in terms of advancing the science.”

So there you have it, if Big Pharma isn’t making it, they oppose it. Sadly, this just proves that medicine is a business just like any other. The only difference is, if I ignore one of my prospective clients for my small business, they’ll just go elsewhere. When the State Medical Society turns a blind eye to the will of seriously ill patients, they don’t have easy alternative options.

Apparently, the State Medical Society is completely ignoring the litany of evidence – anecdotal and scientific -- showing that cannabis provides life saving appetite growth to seriously ill patients and alleviates pain with fewer side effects of other pain killers.

Medical cannabis with a doctor’s guidance is less dangerous than a doctor prescribing addicting OxyContin. Just ask Rush Limbaugh. Or Vicodin. Just ask Brett Favre.

I’m no stranger to tackling tough issues in the political arena. And I don’t quit. Together we will win!

Ticket to a GOP circus

Around 3 o’clock this morning something became crystal clear in the Assembly. We saw the true colors of Republicans who have been obsessively focused on punishing their former colleague, now Independent lawmaker, Jeff Wood.

It is not about good policy. It is not about clean government or the integrity of the Legislature. It’s not even about the Assembly officially punishing Rep. Jeff Wood.

The Republicans hope to orchestrate a spectacular three-ring circus.

Wood made everyone aware around 9 pm Thursday night that he planned to pull the expulsion resolution against himself from committee to the floor for a vote. Both sides went into caucus to talk. Dems came back around 10:30 pm.

But Republicans found ways to drag session out – standing informal, caucusing – for six hours. Then after delay upon delay, they cried foul – we simply could not resolve this in the middle of the night!

If their agenda was to punish Wood, they could have done so last night. The Democrats voted to pull the motion from committee so we could take it up, deal with it and move on to other important matters. There is a lot going on right now that is of vital importance to Wisconsin’s economy, our families and our future. But Republicans voted against taking action on Wood saying they didn’t like the early-morning timing they themselves had forced and that they wanted Rep. Steve Nass, who requested the expulsion proceedings, present.

First – this is not about Rep. Steve Nass. We offer our condolences to Rep. Nass right now on the loss of his mother. Having another chance to speak against Jeff Wood cannot be what is foremost on his mind at this difficult time. As Republicans have publicly agreed – this is about the institution and how we are going to discipline members. And Nass himself made it clear when he chose not to attend a committee hearing on the Wood investigation that his presence is not necessary for action.

“There wasn’t any need for me to be there,” Nass told the media after missing the hearing. “It was very clear cut…The resolution is very, very clear…”

Nass is right – his resolution against Wood is clear.

And now another thing is clear. It’s clear what the Republicans real motive has been all along.

The Comeback Country

Interesting article from the April 19, 2010 Newsweek titled The Comeback Country. It lays out how all the negative speculation meant "bleak is the new black," then challenges that assertion, calling the US economic recovery a "remarkable turnaround."

"But the long-term decline of the U.S. economy has been greatly exaggerated," writes Daniel Gross. "America is coming back stronger, better, and faster than nearly anyone expected—and faster than most of its international rivals."

Worth reading.

The cost of a promise

One thing I’ve learned in my years on Joint Finance is that words have a price. It’s easy to say things and make promises that sound good without realizing -- or at least without explaining -- what kind of hit it would mean to the state budget in extremely tight financial times.

One such vow in the newspaper a few months back caught my eye. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker told an editorial board that if he were to ever run this state, he would eliminate Wisconsin’s tax on retirement income. Here’s what the resulting article in the La Crosse Tribune stated:

“[Walker] also promises to eliminate Wisconsin’s tax on retirement income, which he says hurts investment in Wisconsin because wealthy retirees flee to more tax-friendly states.”

So what would be the cost to keep wealthy retirees from fleeing? In such matters, the best answer comes from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. There is a detailed three-page answer you can read here, but it boils down to this:

A loss of $460 million per year.

That's $920 million we'd need to replace in a biennial budget. To put that in perspective, that is almost the equivalent of running the entire state Department of Corrections for one year.

So how would he cover that cost? Walker doesn’t say.

The Governor's Black Friday

Governor Doyle must have been in a serious Friday funk last week. His office put out two press releases Friday that completely struck out.

First, the Governor’s office put out a release announcing the filing of the state Race to the Top application. The state put together a solid application hoping to be one of the lucky 15 states to get some federal, one-time dollars for education. That is a good thing.

What isn’t so good is the Governor’s Don Quixotic obsession with the mayoral takeover of the Milwaukee Public School district. Somehow a positive press release about bipartisan state efforts to get millions of dollars for education devolved into the Governor’s obsession with mayoral takeover of MPS.

In the second to last paragraph of his press release, he buried an attack on Democratic lawmakers for not lining up to jump the cliff with him on his, thus far, inadequately proposed plan for Milwaukee public schools. Does the Governor really believe he has lined up enough Republican votes for passage? Not from what I hear.

Governor, remember it was you who launched an inadequately laid out plan without the forethought of allies or a direction you were going. If there is fault to assess, that is where you should look. Perhaps you need to reassess the launch and execution of your “plan” for mayoral takeover.

Also of note was the media release sent out at 4:34 pm on Friday announcing the Recovery jobs report. Yes, I will say it again: The Governor announced 44,000 jobs retained or created through recovery dollars at 4:30 pm on a Friday, the black hole of media times to get coverage. Doh!

It’s time to get back to the legislative Democrats’ #1 priority – jobs. I think the Mayoral takeover plan in its current form is on self-induced life-support.

Co-ink-a-dinky?

Exhibit A: Republican legislators ask for a review of Medicaid costs at the Joint Finance Committee, which took place last Thursday.

Exhibit B: One day after the meeting, the Wisconsin Taxpayer Alliance puts out what I’ll generously call a “report” (less than two pages) about the soaring costs of Medicaid.

Now I am certain it was not at all coordinated. The self-proclaimed “independent” Wisconsin Taxpayer Alliance just happened to release its own report a day later. On the same topic. Within 24 hours. What an amazing coincidence.

It’s no surprise that Republicans and the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance are on the same message. Too bad it’s the wrong one.

The sloppy, partisan Taxpayer Alliance report, less-than-two-pages long, fails to account for basic questions an average high-school term paper would not miss. With one passing sentence it glosses over the elephant in the room: soaring health care costs. Wouldn’t you want to know how much health care costs in general have increased over the same period? I know it would have been expected as part of a paper written at East High School.

Instead it focuses on enrollment in the plans having increased – including “the increased emphasis placed on covering children and families.” Ah ha – it is those insidious poor children that are driving up state and federal costs. And, of course, all the people who have lost their jobs during this national economic crisis are to blame as well.

The poor and unemployed are the villains -- not the skyrocketing cost of health care. Never mind that during the time period covered in this report, the state’s cost per person served – the part Wisconsin taxpayers cover – was cut in half.

And, to make matters worse the corporate-leaning Taxpayer’s Alliance decided that providing health care comes at the expense of a Democratic priority – education. No analysis on the subject, just GOP rhetoric. Forget all those corporate tax loopholes we filled this year…

Finally, nowhere did the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance conclude that our country desperately needs national health care and health insurance reform.

But of course that’s not a Republican approved talking point.

Joint hearing

It’s no surprise that Sen. Jon Erpenbach and I have heard a few wisecracks about scheduling a “joint public hearing” on our bill to allow suffering patients the option of medicinal marijuana.

But when the state Senate and Assembly team up for a hearing – it’s called a joint hearing, no escaping it. And that is what the health committees of the two bodies are doing on the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana bill on Dec. 15 at the Capitol in room 412 E at 10 am.

We expect to hear from folks representing some of the nonprofit groups that back our bill, such as the Epilepsy Foundation, HOPE the hospice and palliative experts association, Wisconsin Nurses Association and the ACLU.

Some national groups will fly to Wisconsin, including the Marijuana Policy Project. The Drug Policy Alliance will be represented by Daniel Abrahamson, and if his last name is familiar, that’s no coincidence. He happens to be Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson’s son.

Pot jokes aside, this joint hearing is a positive sign that this bill is being seriously considered and debated in the Capitol. And that's no joking matter for patients who are suffering.

I’m haunted by stories I’ve heard of a suffering mother who had to send her teen to the street to illegally purchase marijuana so she can keep down food or ease her pain.

I expect we’ll hear from quite a few patients suffering the devastating impact of such debilitating and painful diseases as cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS and post traumatic stress disorder.

They highlight two reasons for this bill: common sense health care and compassion.

Many of Wisconsin’s newspapers, including the Wisconsin State Journal, the Appleton Post Crescent, the Wausau Daily Herald, have editorialized in favor of our bill and we appreciate their support.

I was particularly struck by today’s column from Capital Times editor emeritus Dave Zwiefel: “The time for Wisconsin to become the 15th state to allow patients to use pot to make their lives a bit more comfortable is long past due. My own father, who was suffering mightily from the pains of pancreatic cancer, found some relief from marijuana I was able to illegally purchase for him in the last weeks of his life.”

That’s why we need to pass this bill.