Is the Trump administration an attempt to copy what a Bernie Sanders administration would have done? Sometimes it seems that way.
Earlier this week Trump announced an executive order to lower the prices of pharmaceuticals in the United States. As you may recall, this has been one of Bernie’s main policy proposals for years. As Trump barked it out on Truth Social, he will (supposedly) force down pharma prices by 30 to 80 percent.
The rationale for this policy is not difficult to understand, as many drugs are expensive. For instance, Medicare spends more than $160 billion a year on pharmaceuticals for elderly Americans. In an era where we need to look for savings in the federal budget, that is one obvious target.
More outrageous, and indeed baffling to most people, is that many drugs are far cheaper abroad, which induces many people to wonder why Americans must pay more.