Many issues we should be talking about are not getting attention as impeachment has crowded them out. One that should not be overlooked, because it is not good, is HR 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act. prospect.org/...
A major campaign pledge of the Democratic Party in the 2018 election was that it would pass legislation to breech the power of Big Pharma to hold our nation hostage to the highest drug costs in the world. The pain and suffering inflicted by the unfettered greed of our drug companies is lived by millions of families every single day. This is only happening because the United States government is in the pocket of the Pharmaceutical companies, and has been for decades. At least Tens of thousands of lives are lost or shortened every year because those people could not afford needed drugs.
No other country in the world inflicts their citizens to such a fate; no other country has drug costs anywhere near as high as us.
The good news is that Democrats do have a Bill intended to lower drug costs. The bad news is that Nancy Pelosi has taken an opportunity to create legislation to aid millions of our citizens to instead create a fig leaf for the Pharmaceutical and Health Care industries.
The good news is that progressive Democrats are fighting back.
If the Pelosi pushed Bill is passed it will certainly die on McConnell’s desk. So why care about this? In short, 2020. Pelosi is looking to be able to check the box on the promises made during the 2018 campaign, most loudly by the progressive Democratic House candidates. Unfortunately, Pelosi’s Bill is an obvious effort to do as little as possible to offend the drug companies while still claiming to the nation to have done something. What Pelosi wants to do is deflect public attention from the flagrant greed and disregard for human life of the drug companies in representing her desired bill as a solution to the general population.
It's not.
The reporting confirms that Pelosi and her staff have frozen progressives out of deliberations on the bill. (Only yes men allowed.) Legislation which had the support of the majority of Democratic House members was ignored by Pelosi who took her team to negotiate with Trump. Then, after much watering down to appease Trump, he rejected it, but the bill remains watered down.
One group of people with highly visibility in this effort are diabetics. The uninsured would cannot afford the world’s highest cost for insulin get nothing in Pelosi’s bill. Zero.
There are 98 progressives in the House. Please encourage them to stick together and demand change. Pelosi is continuing the tradition of Democrats not fighting for the people but only what those with money are willing to accept.
Democratic House candidates in 2020 need to run on a plan that will end the financial pillaging of our country by groups like Big Pharma, and Pelosi’s Bill does not come close. Once again, our Corporate Democrats show their refusal to offer the legislation that a strong majority of people in the country want in favor of doing the least to offend those with big money.