Democrats Push Back After Azar Confirms Trump Lied About His Drug Plan
June 13, 2018
After being pressed by Democrats, Trump’s HHS secretary and former pharma executive Alex Azar yesterday confirmed that Trump lied about his drug plan and could not guarantee that it would lower drug prices.
Yesterday, Alex Azar confirmed that Trump lied about drug companies lowering their prices.
TWO WEEKS AGO: “‘We’re going to have some of the big drug companies in in two weeks and they’re going to announce — because of what we did — they’re going to announce voluntary massive drops in prices, so that’s great,’ Trump said. He added, ‘For the first time ever in this country, there will be a major drop in the cost of prescription drugs.’”
NOW: “Trump’s health chief suggests ‘massive’ drug price cuts not imminent”
In fact, Azar could not guarantee that drug prices won’t go up after Trump unveiled his plan to lower prices.
NBC News: “‘Can you guarantee that no Medicare beneficiary will pay higher drug prices as a result of your plan to change coverage under Medicare?’ Warren asked. Azar avoided giving a direct answer, saying only, ‘We are going to work on it.’”
Democrats continued to push back on Trump’s drug pricing plan, pointing out his inaction and many broken promises.
Washington Post: “Cutting the nation's rising drug costs is a bipartisan goal, and for a time Democrats shared President Trump's campaign vision for cracking down on pharmaceutical companies and giving the government more power to negotiate deals. But Trump has walked back some of those positions, and at a Senate hearing Tuesday morning, the Democrats on the panel let Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar know they were not impressed with the White House plan.”
Washington Times: “Democrats said it’s time for the Trump administration to do something, after the president’s promise two weeks ago of big voluntary concessions by pharmaceutical companies have yet to materialize.”
Washington Times: “Complicating the effort, however, is Democratic frustration with Mr. Trump’s failure to follow through on a 2016 campaign pledge to directly negotiate down drug prices. ‘He told crowds he would negotiate like crazy,’ Mrs. Murray said.”