Obama's speech was a good one.  He emphasized the talking points he needed to, and he firmly rebutted some of the scare tactics.

I haven't read the bill (of course) but I've heard that one money-saving proposal is still very much "off the table". 

That proposal is to allow Medicare and Medicaid, the VA etc. to negotiate volume discounts with drug suppliers.  

 Every other large-group insurer is allowed to negotiate volume discounts with the pharma companies.

 All the monied countries in the western world have health plans which negotiate for volume discounts with the pharma companies, except the U.S.A.

Why must the U.S.A subsidize the profit margins of big-pharma?  Why must we subsidize the entire world?  Medicare is the most expensive government program there is.  Allowing it to negotiate with drug suppliers would save a ton of money and allow the U.S.A to cover more people without increasing our deficit so much.

Don't tell me the drug companies wouldn't be able to fund research without all our taxpayer $$ going into their profits.  All they'd have to do to keep their profit margins is to decrease their advertising budget. 

The reason this money-saving option is off-the-table is that PHARMA has donated megabucks across both partices.