Petition to rename October 'Pelosi month': submitted 

If you’re a cynic like me, you scoffed when Wendell Primus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top health care adviser, said last week that he expected a floor vote on his signature drug pricing bill by the end of October. But it seems Primus really meant it: Multiple lobbyists have told me the House is gearing up to get this done by the end of the month. That leaves the House just 12 legislative days to get this package marked up in three committees and onto the floor — buckle up!

In a letter about the bill sent Monday to House Democrats, Pelosi was mum on timing. “Upon our return, we will continue to strengthen the bill with Members’ input,” Pelosi wrote. The speaker also said that the House expects the bill to save a significant amount of money and that the committees will determine how to spend those savings, including “perhaps to improve Medicare benefits, encourage innovation, and strengthen the health care of the American people.”

Speaking of the Pelosi plan, if you Google “Medicare,” you might get a not so subtle nudge to click through to a new blog from PhRMA, which lays out all the reasons the plan is the “wrong approach” for tackling high drug prices. The group has also spent $8,000 promoting that message on Twitter in the last week. While that’s a paltry sum for PhRMA, that’s on top of the sums being spent by a slew of conservative groups in the weeks since Pelosi’s plan was unveiled. 

You can’t seem to care about health care in D.C. without running into one of these ads. Take my colleague Lev, who stumbled upon one from Americans for Tax Reform after YouTube-ing “How to make chocolate mousse.”