Hi everyone!
Yesterday was a wild day in the administration. Trump slashed prescription drug prices by doing what no one else has had the nerve to do: actually take on the big pharmaceutical companies and say Stop charging Americans more than you do everyone else. Trump declared that the US would get a most favored nations status, meaning that the lowest prices paid in developed nations would be the price paid here.
In announcing the deal, he spoke about his friend who, while visiting the UK, went to get his "fat shot," Ozempic or some such, only to find that what he paid $1,300 for back home was a mere $88. He called up his old pal Trump to let him know about the glaring inequity, and Trump got it done. The reason the US has paid more, per Trump and per facts, is that US drug makers pass the research and development costs onto US consumers, but then other nations, those with socialized healthcare programs, set the price for how much they're willing to pay for those drugs. Now, that R&D cost will have to be spread around.
Even in light of all these cheaper drugs, however, it's key not to lose sight of MAHA's moves in the federal government. RFK Jr. encouraged Trump to drop his Surgeon General nom and bring in Casey Means, sister of Calley Means, who was a key RFK Jr. advisor during his presidential bid. Casey's plan is to bring back nutrition and exercise toward the goal of getting Americans all off the prescriptions for chronic diseases by, in as many cases as possible, curing those chronic diseases by dealing with metabolic health. It sounds harder than taking a pill, but it's also better.
Trump fired the head of the Library of Congress over wokeness and installed his personal attorney and an assistant AG Tod Blanche as acting librarian of Congress. Blanche sent two Justice Department Officials over to the Library of Congress on Monday with a letter letting administrators know that Paul Perkins and Brian Nieves would be heading up the US Copyright Office and acting as deputy librarian, respectively.
Library of Congress staffers refused to let the men in and called the US Capitol Police. General Counsel Meg Williams asked them to leave and told them they would be denied access to the Copyright Office. But even further, staffers said they didn't recognize Blanche as the head librarian, instead saying that the fired chief's number 2 is the acting head.
That guy, Robert Newlen, sent out an email to staff, saying "Currently, Congress is engaged with the White House, and we have not yet received direction from Congress about how to move forward. We will share additional information as we receive it." But his sign off read "acting librarian of Congress."
DNC Vice Chair David Hogg spoke out in a recent interview with Bill Maher and said, "I’m going to get a lot of heat for what I’m about to say from my fellow Democrats. But we told people — people said to us that Joe Biden is too old, and they said that prices are too high. And we said with the power of $2 billion behind us, 'No, he’s not,' and 'Yes, he is,' and then 'No, they aren’t, and look at this graph of the stock market.'"
On Monday night, a DNC committee voted to void the election that brought Hogg and fellow Vice Chair Malcolm Kenyatta into office. There were three hours of internal debate before the official voiding. The alleged reason was that the election had not followed parliamentary procedures, and one of the losers had said that on the ballot two questions were combined into one vote when they should have been two. She also said, basically, that the vote's framing was discriminatory against women. So, there's that.
But Hogg knows what's up. He said he gets the whole procedure thing, yadda yadda yadda, but that "it is also impossible to ignore the broader context of my work to reform the party which loomed large over this vote. The DNC has pledged to remove me, and this vote has provided an avenue to fast-track that effort." Maybe the Dems are just afraid of young people speaking out against the status quo. No wonder they lost.
I'll be on Pop Culture Crisis today at 3 pm, and Lara Trump's The Right View at 8 pm.
Here's what's on my desk today:
HHS Sec RFK Jr celebrates Trump’s move to slash medicine prices: ‘I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime’
“We finally have a president who’s willing to stand up for the American people.”
Library of Congress staffers block Trump officials’ access, refuse to recognize Todd Blanche as acting head librarian: report
Library of Congress staffers refused to let the men in and called US Capitol Police.
DNC moves to void leadership election of David Hogg, Malcolm Kenyatta
“The DNC has pledged to remove me, and this vote has provided an avenue to fast-track that effort.”
LIBBY EMMONS: Dems who hate white South African refugees betray their own racism
They claim that there’s no “genocide,” so there’s no cause for alarm.