The biggest win for President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats this week isn’t going to happen in the House or Senate. It’s from the work they did last session. Drugmaker Eli Lilly has announced that it is going to cap the cost of its insulin products at $35 or less per month for everybody—even the uninsured—effective immediately. That’s happening now, while it is also cutting the cost of the most commonly prescribed insulins by 70%.
“While the current healthcare system provides access to insulin for most people with diabetes, it still does not provide affordable insulin for everyone, and that needs to change,” said David A. Ricks, Lilly’s Chair and CEO. “The aggressive price cuts we’re announcing today should make a real difference for Americans with diabetes. Because these price cuts will take time for the insurance and pharmacy system to implement, we are taking the additional step to immediately cap out-of-pocket costs for patients who use Lilly insulin and are not covered by the recent Medicare Part D cap.”
Democrats fought hard for that over the last session of Congress, first trying to get it passed in the Biden’s sweeping Build Back Better package, which failed, and then in the Inflation Reduction Act reconciliation bill they passed at the end of last year. They had a provision in that bill that would have capped insulin at $35/month for everyone, but Republicans defeated it. They ended up cutting the cost for Medicare enrollees, which was a significant win. But this one is even bigger. About 3 in 10 people who use insulin use a Lilly product, and Lilly is specifically calling out the other companies to match their efforts, which seems almost inevitable.
That’s a huge win for diabetics, and for Biden and the Democrats. It makes what Congress is doing for the remainder of the week look pretty darned petty.
On Tuesday, House Republicans (along with useless Democrat Jared Golden of Maine) voted 216-204 to overturn a Department of Labor rule to encourage fiduciaries of pension plans to take environmental, social, and governance—or ESG—factors into consideration when choosing retirement investments. The Senate is taking it up Wednesday. It’s a Congressional Review Act resolution, a process that Congress can use to reverse executive-branch actions within 60 legislative days. It is not subject to a filibuster, and it’s privileged in both the House and the Senate—meaning it has to be taken up.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) sponsored it in the Senate, and he’s got Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on board. Because of course he is. Republicans are trying to get more Democrats with them on this, which is one reason we saw this on Tuesday; an op-ed from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in the Wall Street Journal explaining what a ridiculous issue this is.
ESG opponents are trying to turn it into a dirty acronym, deploying attacks they have long used for elements of a so-called woke agenda. They call ESG wokeness. They call it a cult. They call it an incursion into free markets. We’ve heard it all before. I say ESG is just common sense.
Republicans conveniently ignore something very important: America’s most successful asset managers and financial institutions have used ESG factors to minimize risk and maximize their clients’ returns. In fact, according to McKinsey, more than 90% of S&P 500 companies publish ESG reports today.
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He’s not wrong about the opponents. The extremist behind this campaign is none other than Leonard Leo, Federalist Society leader who has succeeded in taking over the federal judiciary, and particularly the U.S. Supreme Court, to advance his white evangelical nationalist ideology with billions in dark money. Of course Joe Manchin is going to fall for that.
Biden has promised to veto the bill if it gets through the Senate. But, coming full circle, there’s already a legal challenge from Republican states and the oil industry. They brought that challenge to a federal court in Texas. To U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo. Yes, the same Leonard Leo pick elevated by Trump who is systematically attempting to undo the 20th century.
He’s the flashpoint right now in the rigged judiciary system created by Leo, Mitch McConnell, and Trump because he’s the guy who could block 50% of abortions in the entire country with just one ruling, a ruling that will be handed down any day now.
This is a huge week in contrasts: the massive win by Democrats for affordable, life-saving health care versus a bullshit, ginned-up culture war on behalf of Big Oil using dark money-rigged courts. That’s 2023 in a nutshell.
Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego has thrown his hat into the ring! Gallego will try to take progressive-turned-bizarre-centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat in 2024. Today on The Brief, Markos and Rep. Gallego talk about the state of the country and his campaign, and what Americans want from the officials they elect to office.