GOP senators who are opposed to
Xavier Becerra, as Biden's nominee
to head the Department of Health
and Human Services have actually
taken tens of millions of dollars
from Big Pharma.
That's relevant because Sarah
himself has fought back against Big
Pharma in his career and has also
been in favor of Medicare for All.
And that just doesn't go along with
the best interests
of these pharmaceutical donors.
So the Senate Finance Committee
ended up being deadlocked along
party lines on whether to advance
his nomination.
Now luckily, there are some
maneuvers that Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer can do to
bring this to a floor vote and
that is likely to happen.
So don't worry about where this
confirmation stands now.
But it is important to see what
the influencing factors are.
And we have some analysis to share
with you, including the fact that
14 Republican members of the panel
have taken $36.1 million from
the health sector including
$9.6 million from Big Pharma,
a fact that progressive say
explains the GOP opposition to
Joe Biden's cabinet pick,
a supporter of Medicare for All.
So I've said this before,
I'll say it again.
Xavier Becerra isn't some hardcore
leftist.
But when you look at where he
stands relative to other nominees,
he's actually a pretty good pick.
And he has been on the record
supporting Medicare for all, he has
actually put some action behind his
words in the state of California,
in attempting to protect
consumers from Big Pharma's greed.
And so Becerra has pledged to
expand health care access and
lower drug prices.
According to Accountable.US,
they're the ones who did
this analysis, the opposition to
Becerra by Republican members of
the Senate Finance Committee,
who have oversight of the very same
industries that have bankrolled
their campaigns with millions of
dollars reflects an effort to
appease their Big Pharma donors.
And I'll give you one specific
example, before you jump in, Genk.
Senator John Cornyn, who's on
this committee, has accepted over
$1.7 million from the health sector
throughout his career, including 1
million from Big Pharma.
And by the way Cornyn is
someone who has closer ties to
the pharmaceutical industry.
In fact, he said this.
I don't know what his health and
human services credentials are.
It's not like Alex Azar who used to
be, work for pharma.
That's all you really need to know,
work for pharma.
They want people who have close
cozy ties to the pharmaceutical
industry and
the fact that Becerra does not have
that is what turns them off to him.
>> Look, this story has
two angles to, so number one,
we're going to build something
called a platform for change, okay?
So we haven't talked much about it
but when we asked you to build out
your profiles on the website and
stuff, do that because it's
really important.
Why, we're going to do change
campaigns kind of like what we're
doing with the $15 minimum wage,
but we're going to allow you guys
to drive it, okay?
So the reason I'm telling you all
this is because, we're going to
create a system where we're
going to do hashtag bribes,
on every single one of these.
And we let the media know, and
we're going to ask them over and
over again $36 million.
You think you work for
their health?
For the environment?
For the general public welfare, no,
they're buying the politicians.
Now look at that court did and
just read you Cornyn is so
praising because the media will not
challenge them on the bribes.
So he just takes corporate rule as
a given and a positive.
They say this sumbitch didn't even
work for corporate corporations
that would benefit from the bills
that we pass.
How dare he try to be someone who,
a public servant?
No, he should be corporations bitch
and he isn't like the rest of us.
We sit here taking millions upon
millions of dollars and
now we're just publicly saying this
guy is not corrupt and
we will not stand for it, okay?
It's just amazing.
If you live anywhere in the world
that isn't America,
you probably can't believe it.
No, guys, it's true in America,
we legalized bribery, and we called
it campaign contributions.
All these industries just
give these guys giant checks,
millions of dollars
that they used to get reelected.
It's just,
the whole thing's a scam.
Now, the second part is, Becerra's
actually borderline great.
And that's weird, right?
And that's why Republicans
are flipping out.
They're like,
are you actually going to put
a Progressive into your government?
What are you, nuts?
I thought we agreed we weren't
going to do this.
And so I will give Biden credit on
this one.
Becerra is an excellent pick for
Health and Human Services.
He's in favor of Medicare for All.
In the things that I've seen, look,
we got a pretty strong bs
meter here.
And if he's pretending but
he isn't really in favor of it,
we will suss that out.
So far, so good.
So, I almost can't believe they're
going to put them at HHS.
Now, look, don't get me wrong.
It's not like the cabinet level
person gets to
decide what the bills are.
So Becerra can't make Medicare for
all happen.
And so they, and Biden knows that,
and Biden's against Medicare for
all but give him credit for picking
an actual pretty strong Progressive
and and that's exactly why
the Republicans that are completely
corporate owned, have their
hair on fire because this guy might
actually work for us, the voters.
>> Yeah, look, the head of HHS,
it's important for that person
to have an understanding of all
the ways in which our healthcare
system is broken,
like legitimately broken, not
broken in the way that Republicans
would have you believe, right?
Republicans would say, no, no,
let's make sure that private health
insurance companies actually
covered less.
And let's not offer you any
Medicare but we'll offer you health
savings accounts.
So you can put money that you don't
have into an account that can only
be used for
approved health care spending.
Anyway, but I do want to offer you
some other examples of Republican
lawmakers who serve on
the Senate Finance Committee,
who of course have voted no in
confirming Becerra, you also have
Mike Crapo, who's from (R-Id.),
he has accepted over $1.8 million
from the health sector throughout
his career, including over
$616,000 from Big Pharma.
He also raked in contributions from
the health care and
financial sectors as he was poised
to become the committee chairman at
the end of last year.
And the list goes on and on Genk.
Chuck Grassley.
He also serves on this committee.
He has accepted over $3.7 million
from the health sector throughout
his career, including nearly $1
million from Big Pharma.
I mean, this corruption it's,
Congress is drenched in it.
And it's become so common place and
so accepted that you're right,
that once you have someone who's
not bought off by private insurance
companies or
the private health care industry,
that ends up being the shock.
That ends up being something
that they fight against harder
than doing something to
actually represent the best
interests of their constituents.
>> Yes, and one last part of this.
The only people that
the Republicans are still objecting
to are Becerra.
And the rest are all women of color
candidates, those are the ones
that they're objecting to.
So we're going to fight back
against all, hey, we gave you
a near attended Win Win, okay?
But everyone else know we're
fighting for
especially the Progressive