Ho-hum. Another day on Capitol Hill, and another victory for the drug companies.

Way to go, folks. Your high profits are protected once again. What a lovely return on the investments the pharmaceutical manufacturers have made over many years through political contributions to those senators and representatives who want to be their very good friends.

The latest setback for the public was the sabotage of an amendment from Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. Dorgan wanted to amend a bill overhauling the Food and Drug Administration's drug safety system to let Americans buy prescription medicines from foreign suppliers. This would have allowed pharmacies to import those drugs from other developed countries, Canada in particular — drugs that had been produced in facilities licensed by the FDA. The savings to consumers would have been immense.

The FDA overhaul had broad support, and it needed to pass. So a proviso was added to the amendment that would allow the purchases of cheaper foreign drugs to proceed only if the government would certify the drugs as safe. That's an important consideration, but the Bush administration, which bows to the domestic pharmaceutical industry, is reluctant to offer such assurances no matter how reasonable they would be for drugs manufactured under conditions that qualified for an FDA license. So Dorgan's effort was in vain.

There is this, however. Because of the stubborn refusal of drug and insurance companies to loosen their stranglehold on the United States' health care system, a movement is afoot to consider that which these interests dread the most — a national system, similar to those in other countries. Americans have seen their health-care choices diminish while their costs have gone up, and politicians are starting to talk seriously about reform. It doesn't scare people the way it used to.

So, by not seeking to fix the system, to make it serve people as it should, the big-profit companies with a selfish interest may find themselves facing reform that will make them very unhappy. Good. Don't celebrate the thrill of this victory too long, folks. The agony of defeat may be closer than you think.