One of the many gauntlets Biden threw down in his State of the Union address was about reducing the costs of drugs. He explained that insulin only costs about $10 a vial to make, maybe $13 with packaging, but that drug companies have been charging Americans $400-$500 a month.
“Not anymore, not anymore,” Biden said, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. Speaker Kevin McCarthy clapped briefly, though stayed seated. It seemed more than the GOP side of the aisle could bring themselves to do. But as Democrats continued applauding, cheering and chanting, “not any more” McCarthy looked on, stone-faced.
Biden added that as of January 1, 2023, insulin is capped at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare. There were more cheers and applause from the Democrats. McCarthy remained stony, silent and sitting.
“Look, there are millions of other Americans who are not on Medicare,” Biden continued, including 200,000 young people, who rely on insulin to stay alive. “Let’s finish the job this time. Let’s cap the cost of insulin for everybody at $35.”
That brought on more cheers and applause – from one side of the aisle only. McCarthy looked uncomfortable. Every time the camera showed the Republican side, the members couldn't have looked more displeased.
But Biden couldn’t have looked more chipper. “Big pharma is still going to do very well, I promise you all,” he grinned, looking at the Republican side of the aisle. He went on to point out that now, thanks to the IRA, if drug prices rise faster than inflation, drug companies will have to pay back the difference to Medicare and that Medicare now has the power to negotiate drug prices. There were whoops in the audience but I think we can all guess which side it came from.
Then Biden stuck in the knife deeper. Savings on drugs “cuts the federal deficit by billions of dollars, by hundreds of billions of dollars,” he said, with another grin. There was wild applause at that, but not from the Republicans or their speaker.
Yep, the same folks who claim to care so much about reducing the deficit they’re refusing to raise the debt ceiling in order to force cuts in spending just showed their true colors.
They don’t care about the deficit or saving Americans money or even their lives. They only care about partisan politics.
And Biden got it all on prime time television.
