it s the lobbyists. we re going to pull the screen up for you and blow your mind. in the first quarter of 2017, that is three months, the biggest spenders of lobbying, total lobbying by industry, look at this, pharmaceuticals and health products have spent 78 million dollars in the last three months lobbying to our government. number two that s unbelievable. unbelievable. double as much as the insurance company. the insurance industry 40 million. three months, one quarter. the lobbying efforts of these companies who want to keep these prices high, who are not working for you and me, 78 million bucks. not to make a product, to protect their turf. just so you know the pbms, cvs, care market, scripts, companies like that you get the benefit card if you re insured through express scripts, these are the pbms. this industry doesn t exist anywhere else in the world.
now on their parents health care plan, so the administration is being very careful to try to politically balance a very dangerous bill for them. eric: well, a.b., what does that mean if they say they re not cutting medicaid advantage now, but let s say they do it over the next couple of years? well, this is really the problem, is the impression americans are getting right now of what obamacare is. that changes week in and week out, and we all know that because it s changed so many times with the extensions, waivers and delays. the administration has offered. we also don t know, the secretary says when we tally those newcomers, that is very critical data. if we find out there s an early estimate from a company called express scripts that some of the newcomers in that population are on specialty medications, they sound riskier and more expensive. once we find out this data of this new population, that s going the determine everything, whether or not this law is affordable and whether
a raging fire at a california refinery sending dozens of people to area hospitals with breathing problems. the fire at a chevron facility north of san francisco broke out last night. authorities say a diesel leak may have triggered that fire. people are being told to stay indoors there. stock futures heading higher on word some u.s. corporations are posting positive earnings. cvs, disney, priceline and express scripts showing earnings ahead of wall street predictions but the fed is expected to report consumers took on more debt in june even as they kept spending to a minimum. former owner of the l.a. dodgers, peter o malley, teaming up with pro golfer phil mickelson to buy the san diego padres. price tag said to be $800 million. at a minimum. 23 past. patti ann? patti ann: accused arizona gunman jared loughner is expected to plead guilt t today in the shooting rampage that left six people dead and 13 wounded including congresswoman
early worries over weak global economic reports. the s&p closed at its highest level since may 2008. and the dow closed at its highest level since january 07. however, some of that enthuse was offset by news that home builders activity fell by the most in seven months in february. german perfume giant kody was rebuffed by avon. avon shot up 17%. express scripts rose 2% after completing a $29.1 billion acquisition of medco health. this morning s wall street journal reports the securities and exchange commission is looking into accounting practices at groupon after its revised quarterly report dragged its stock down 17%. global payments says it won t know for weeks how much the cybertheft of 1.5 million credit card holders will damage its bottom line. the royal bank of canada has been charged by u.s. regulators
gingrich is now 15 points ahead of romney in a new gallup poll and mr. paul steinhauser joins us right now from washington. hello, paul. how does romney plan to handle what is shaping up to be a two-man race at this point? it really is shaping up. that was the national poll, don. take a look at this, state poll. iowa. two new polls in iowa. one of them, cbs/ new york times. you adjust showed the national poll. newt gingrich ahead by double digits. the frontrunner, we re less than four weeks away from the iowa caucuses. what is mitt romney doing about all this? romney was speaking to reporters yesterday on the campaign trail and said he would be more forceful in going after newt gingrich and pointing out the differences where they stand on certain things and he also said, you ll see more of me. more interviews and more time on the campaign trail. he says after about a week from now when he finishes up some fund-raising, you ll see a lot more of mitt romney. four weeks to go