Trump’s EO signing today came with a press conference with RFK, Jr. (it’s still live), NIH director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, CDC director Dr. Mehmet Oz, and FDA Commissioner Dr. Mary Makary standing at his side. Take a look at their resumes. It’s an impressive team. I don’t remember America having a team this strong.
Listening to his remarks, I’m impressed by how deep Trump’s knowledge runs on the subject of the medical-industrial complex (and international political economy more broadly), and what he’s doing to reign in Big Pharma price-gouging is one of the most important developments in our lifetime.
Democrats have promised this for years, but it was a talking point. Democrats take millions of dollars in donations from Big Pharma—include the self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sander (who is reality a sheepdog). But Trump can’t be bought this way. Kennedy just praised him for his independence and focus on the needs of the common man. Kennedy noted that Trump took 100 million dollars from Big Pharma, but it did not influence him.
Trump and Kennedy are taking on arguably the most powerful lobby in Washington to bring down drug prices for working class Americans. Trump is pegging drug prices in the United States to what the rest of the world is paying, which is several times lower than the price Americans pay both individually and collectively.
Presently, the US has only 4 percent of the world population yet represents two-thirds to three-quarters of Big Pharma profits. The American people have been subsidizing Big Pharma for decades—and more broadly state-run healthcare in Europe.
One of the main reasons universal healthcare has not been instituted in the United States is because Europe depends on US subsidies to the industry to maintain their socialized systems. I’ve been talking about this for years. Trump refers to his approach as “equalization.” European taxpayers are going to learn very quickly how much they have depended on the American taxpayer for their low drug prices.
When the new pricing regime comes into effect, it will save billions for Medicare and Medicaid. Prices on insulin and cancer drugs will come down substantially. How are Democrats going to vote against this? How will RINOs going to vote against this? Millions of Republican voters depend on Medicaid and Medicare.
So I await to see whether the corporate state media (largely funded by Big Pharmaceutical) will praise Trump for finally doing something about drug prices. I am being sardonic of course. So far, the media has dwelled on the stock price drop hitting Big Pharma over the news. Progressives have been thrilled at stock market instability of late. They use it as a metric of Trump’s performance. If you believe the media narrative you won’t understand politics in America—or around the world.
This tells you on whose side legacy media and the Democratic Party stand. It’s not on your side. It’s on the side of the oligarchs Trump is taking on. The cathedral and progressive pundits want you to believe Trump is the oligarchs’ president. But the truth of reality the corporate state propaganda system projects is inverted to produce a false reality. Right the image and you see the truth.
The Republican Party is becoming party of the working class, entrepreneurs, and small business. Once RINOs are fully marginalized and forced to return to the Party of Lincoln, the transformation will be complete. Democrats are the party of big corporate power and the credentialed strata for decades (really, they always were).
Unfortunately, the cognitive dissonance associated with this information will for many be lessened by denying it. I don’t expect progressives to ever embody their working class rhetoric. Their fortunes depends on the perpetuation of the corporate state and its administrative apparatus. They’re technocrats.
To be sure, Republicans have to deal in a world of big corporate power and finance. But Trump, with his tariff policies and demands for economic fairness, includes everybody in the deal. That’s all working class Americans have ever wanted: a piece of the action.
freedom and reason 