INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Trump Accuses Pharmaceutical Industry of ‘Getting Away With Murder’, Sanders’ Prescription Drug Amendment Blocked By Democrats

By Sarah Runge
Published on: 09:22 PST, Jan 12, 2017

As the debate over health care rages on, it seems that President-elect Donald Trump and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders have once again found an issue that they agree on, much to the dismay of certain Democrats. As reported by the Inquisitr earlier this month, Trump and Sanders have previously found common ground on the importance of saving Social Security and Medicare.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that during Trump’s first press conference since winning the election, the self-proclaimed billionaire took aim at pharmaceutical companies, accusing the industry of “getting away with murder.” Following Sanders’ lead in this matter, Trump then promised to bring down drug costs during his administration.

Trump’s comments came just before yesterday’s Senate session to set congressional budget priorities for next year. During that session, 13 Democrats voted to block a budget amendment by Sanders (I-VT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) that would have lowered the cost of prescription drug prices. The amendment, which would have allowed the U.S. to import prescription drugs from countries with strict regulations like Canada and the U.K., failed by a vote of 46-52, despite the support of 12 Republicans. According to the Huffington Post, Sanders proposed the amendment as a bipartisan motion that would have made cutting consumer medical costs a budget priority.

“Sanders said he plans to give congressional Republicans a chance to decide whether they want to side with their incoming president or the pharmaceutical industry Wednesday night. During the spree of votes outlining federal budget priorities, he plans to offer an amendment that would allow the U.S. to import prescription drugs from other countries with robust regulatory regimes, including Canada and the United Kingdom. Since those countries negotiate with Big Pharma, their costs are lower, and importing the medicine from abroad would cut costs.”

Notably, four of the Senate Democrats who voted against the motion are among those who received the most funding from the pharmaceutical industry during their Senate campaigns, including Cory Booker (D-NJ), Bob Casey (D-PA), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Patty Murray (D-WA). As documented by Open Secrets, Booker received a massive sum of $329,000 from the pharmaceutical industry in his 2014 election bid, while Casey chalked up an extremely generous $258,030 in 2012. Murray and Bennet, who both ran in 2016, received $333,444 and $263,417 respectively.

According to Open Secrets, Pharmaceutical and Health Product companies were the top lobbyists in 2016, contributing a giant total of $186.2 million to various political campaigns, and beating out the second-place contributors, insurance companies, by a staggering $75 million. As revealed by the BBC in 2014, pharmaceutical companies have the largest profit margins of any industry in the world, despite a notorious reputation for corruption as well as billions of dollars spent on malpractice fines. Meanwhile, prescription drug prices in America continue to increase by more than 18 percent per year, with pharmaceutical companies claiming that the increases are due to “research and development” in spite of the fact that drug companies spend up to twice as much marketing their products as they do developing them.

[Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

As the debate over health care continues, this decision by the 13 Democrats who sided with the pharmaceutical industry over the American people should be taken into account when they face re-election. These Democrats could have chosen to pass the amendment by Sanders and Klobuchar, but instead decided against it.

Eight of these Democrats are expected to be on the ballot in 2018, including Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tom Carper (D-DE), Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Jon Tester (D-MT). Three will face re-election in 2020, including Cory Booker (D-NJ), who may throw his hat into the presidential race, Chris Coons (D-DE), and Mark Warner (D-VA), while the final two, Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Patty Murray (D-WA), still have full six-year terms to complete.

https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/videos/10154353692982908/

Despite this latest setback for Sanders in his fight to lower prescription drug prices, Trump’s recent support of this issue indicates that the days of pharmaceutical companies making obscene profits at the expense of the American people may be coming to an end. With the unlikely allies drawing attention to the outrageous behavior of healthcare profiteers, support can be garnered from both conservative and progressive voters, and elected officials on both sides of the aisle can expect to be put on notice. After all, as Sanders states on his website, healthcare is a human right, and America should join the rest of the developed world by providing affordable access to life-saving care and medication.

“Americans pay, by far, the highest prices for prescription drugs in the entire world. When we talk about health care, we are talking about the need of the American people to be able to afford the medicine their health care providers prescribe. A life-saving drug does no good if the people who need it cannot afford that drug.

[Image by Thomas Northcut/Thinkstock]

[Featured Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

Share this article: Trump Accuses Pharmaceutical Industry of ‘Getting Away With Murder’, Sanders’ Prescription Drug Amendment Blocked By Democrats
cory booker bernie sanders Donald Trump
More from Inquisitr