UNITED STATES: Biden Requests Congress Approve His Proposal To Lower Drug Prices
President Joe Biden urged lawmakers to pass his prescription drug price-cutting plan. Saying he wants to reduce rising costs faced by families when inflation is on the rise.
“It’s easy for us to bring down the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs,” Biden said Thursday in Culpeper, Virginia. “It’s legal to do with the stroke of a pen.”
Biden’s Remarks About Lowering the Drug Prices
As rising consumer prices threaten Democrats’ control of Congress. Biden is attempting to address drug prices and other budgetary issues ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
On the same day, the president made his remarks; data from the Labor Department revealed that in the United States, consumer prices rose faster than expected. More quickly than expected in December and January. They pushed the annual inflation rate to a new four-decade high of 7.5%.
On Thursday, Trump said he’d “work like the devil” to bring down rising gasoline prices. “Coming from a family where the cost of gas went up, you knew what it was like and how It matters,” Biden said.
Biden’s stalled $2 trillion Build Back Better social spending plan. It aims to reduce prescription drug costs for people with Medicare. By allowing the federal government to negotiate drug prices, private insurance sets a cap on out-of-pocket expenses for some sets daycare enrollees and limits insulin costs.
“We propose that we negotiate reasonable prices,” Biden said.
Republican Senators Oppose Biden’s Plan
Republican senators oppose Biden’s Build Back Better plan, as are moderate Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Biden has stated that the package must be broken up to pass through Congress. He remains hopeful that some “chunks” of the bill will survive.
President Biden Caps Off SoCal Trip With Plans to Lower Prescription Drug Costs: https://t.co/aosf4S9N4D
— Pedro Paz (@CowPolitics) October 14, 2022
Senators Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar are urging leaders to move quickly on a standalone bill to reduce drug prices, requiring 60 votes to pass in the evenly divided Senate unless they are willing to substitute it for the rest of Biden’s economic agenda.
While Manchin has stated his support for efforts to lower drug prices, Democrats in both the House and Senate voted against major drug price controls last year.
The president was accompanied in Virginia by Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger, who is up for re-election after Virginia redrew its congressional map.
Spanberger is running in a significantly redrawn 7th District, whose boundaries have shifted north, excluding portions of suburban Richmond that had previously supported her. A group of Republican challengers is attempting to unseat her.
