Drug company profits are literally killing people - and now even doctors are speaking out.

Dr. Leonard Saltz, chief of gastrointestinal oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, rebuked the pharmaceutical industry for the sharp rise in cancer drug prices over the last decade. The median monthly price for new cancer drugs nearly doubled between 2000 and 2014 – from a monthly cost of 4,716 dollars between 2000 and 2004 to a monthly cost of about 9,900 dollars between 2010 and 2014.

Dr. Saltz explained part of the problem: “cancer-drug prices are not related to the value of the drug. Prices are based on what has come before and what the seller believes the market will bear.”

And that’s a neat feature of our current patent system – drug companies don’t have to worry about what people can afford to pay for a product. Because monopolies set their own prices.

And that’s what a patent is – a state-backed monopoly on a product.

Thomas Jefferson knew that monopolies would be a threat to the people and the people’s government. Jefferson wrote to James Madison on December 20, 1787 expressing concern that the draft of the Constitution did not include a bill of rights “providing clearly […] for freedom of religion, freedom of press, protection against standing armies, restriction of monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury…”

Jefferson wanted safeguards from monopolies included in our Bill of Rights – but a patent gives a company the state-sponsored monopoly on a product for the term of the patent. And patents aren’t inherently bad. It would be hugely discouraging to inventors and writers if any old troll can steal a novel idea and peddle it without crediting the inventor.

That’s why Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” And that’s what our Founders wanted our patents to do – encourage innovations for the public good by allowing innovators exclusive rights to their inventions or writings for a limited time.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Has the FBI Started an Air Force to Spy on Americans? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Big Picture Politics Panel:
- Jennifer Kerns, Washington Times/ The Blaze
- Ben Cohen, The Daily Banter
- Scott Greer, The Daily Caller

Best of the Rest: Has the FBI Started an Air Force to Spy on Americans?
- Robert McCaw, Council on American Islamic Relations (C.A.I.R.)

Screwed: ObamaTrade Is What's for Dinner
- Curtis Ellis, Obamatrade/American Jobs Alliance

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "The Danger of American Fascism" by Henry A. Wallace.

Article: "USA Freedom Act" by Wikipedia.

Article: "USA Freedom Act moves forward in Senate, but amendment battle looms" by Erin Kelly.

Article: "This Cancer Doctor Is Leading the Attack on Astronomical Drug Prices" by Robert Langreth, Cynthia Koons.

Law: "Patriot Act", 2001.

Article: "2001 anthrax attacks" by Wikipedia.

Article: "TSA Chief Out After Agents Fail 95 Percent of Airport Breach Tests" by Tom Costello and M. Alex Johnson.

Article: "Rand Paul's money problem" by Alex Isenstadt.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Case: "First National Bank Of Boston V. Bellotti", 1978.

Article: "Pew Study: Right-Wing Radio Shows Among Most Distrusted Sources Of News" by Thomas Bishop.

Book: "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell.

Book: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Book: "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis.

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Deborah Jeane Palfrey" (D.C. Madam) by Wikipedia.

Article: "FBI checking out Americans' reading habits / Bookstores, libraries can't do much to fend off search warrants" by Bob Egelko, 23 Jun 2002.

Article: "First, lay off all the state workers".

Hour Two: Should militarized police be a side effect of medical marijuana?
- Kymone Freeman, Black Lives Matter DC/We Act Radio/DCFerguson

Event: June 5-7, Washington D.C. Green Festival.

Video: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Civil Forfeiture (HBO).

Article: "District officials weigh in against Pepco-Exelon merger" by Aaron C. Davis.

Excerpt: "Boston Tea Party, a chapter from the book Unequal Protection" by Thom Hartmann.

There's nothing civil about "civil asset forfeiture"
- Ginnifer Hency, Medical-Marijuana patient, victim of civil asset forfeiture
- Michael Komorn, her attorney, Komorn Law

Article: "‘Why take my vibrator?': Michigan cops legally rob ‘every belonging’ from medical marijuana patient" by David Edwards.

The good: "Sweden Is About To Give New Fathers A Third Month Of Paid Paternity Leave" by Nick Visser.

The bad: "Ex-FIFA Official Cites Satirical Article From The Onion in His Self-Defense" by Robert Mackey.

The very, very ugly: Bryan Fischer: "Right-Wingers Claim Texas Flooding Caused Not by Climate Change but Witchcraft and Sodomy" by Hrafnkell Haraldsson.

Article: "5th Amendment" (double jeopardy, witness against self, due process, taking clause, due compensation).

Article: "Export-Import Bank of the United States" by Wikipedia.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Bob Ney

Article: "Senate Ends Debate On Freedom Act, Moves To Attach Amends" by Anna Merod.

Article: "Top TSA official reassigned in wake of US airport security failures" by Reuters.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Book: "Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill" by Robert Ney.

Article: "TRNS News Notes – 6/2" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Article: "Fast track (trade)" (TPA) by Wikipedia.

Article: "4th Amendment". "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.".

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Fox Alert: "Fox News Repeatedly Mocks And Misgenders Caitlyn Jenner" by Judd Legum.

Article: "Right-Wing Media Respond With Sarcasm And Disrespect To Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair Cover " by Lis Power.

Article: "Bernie-nomics: How Sanders Wants to Handle the Economy" by Ben Brody.

Article: "Exposed! How the Billionaires Class Is Destroying Democracy" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Alexander Fraser Tytler" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Constitution of the Soviet Union (1977)".

Article: "Tucker 48" (car) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Congress plots to pay for a trade deal by raiding Medicare" (Rep. David Reichert) by Michael Hiltzik.

Article: "It Only Took Four Months For China To Achieve A Jaw-Dropping Reduction In Carbon Emissions" by Ari Phillips.

Article: "The Renewable Energy Industry Employs Nearly 8 Million People Worldwide [Infographic]" by Niall McCarthy.

Article: "Canadian Risk Assessment Finds GMO Salmon Susceptible to Disease" by Friends of the Earth.

Article: "Just looking at nature can help your brain work better, study finds" by Chris Mooney.

Article: "French bill seeks to boost renewable energy, cut nuclear use" by AP.

Article: "Ben And Jerry's Just Released A New Flavor, And It Could Help Save Our Planet" by Nick Visser.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

Ari Rabin-Havt, host of The Morning Agenda (SiriusXM Progress 127), will be calling in from a TPP petition drop at the Capitol today.

Dr. Corinna Basler, president of Green Festivals, Inc., the longest-running sustainability and green living event, will be here to tell us about their 11th annual event in Washington, DC starting June 5th.

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Will the media ever treat Bernie Sanders like a legitimate candidate?

Vote here!

Wow! Fukushima Leak Could Cause an Explosion?

America...No Longer Home of the Brave But the Scared S*#tless

Crazy Alert! Nude biker bares a bit too much!

Will Bernie Be the Beginning of a Revolution?

Will The Patriot Act Be Reauthorized?

What the GOP Means By One Person One Vote

The Good, The Bad and the very very Pisticly Ugly

Full Show 6/1/15: Bernie Sanders: “A Political Revolution is Coming”

Thom discusses whether the Patriot Act will be reauthorized with constitutional scholar and attorney Bruce Fein, whether Bernie Sanders’ political revolution has begun with professor Jeff Cohen, what the latest Fukushima leak could mean with Beyond Nuclear’s Paul Gunter, and in tonight’s Daily Take Thom discusses how we’re no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave.

How do we Replace the "F" word?

There's Nothing Civil About "Civil Asset Forfeiture"

Thom Hartmann on Science & Green News: June 1, 2015

Synergy: How the Media Works...

Want to run for President? Better get a Billionaire...

Caller: Republicans Have Finally Found Their 'Boogeyman' in ISIS...

Borowitz Alert: NSA Compensates for Loss of Surveillance...

Caller: Libertarian Philosophy - Dismantle Government...