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Journalist Nathan Stone and Producer Josh Carmody invite you to sit down for deep dives on the rapid changes happening in Trump’s new America.
00:02
The Trump administration is tackling the president's campaign promise to reduce drug prescription costs with a new unique program called TrumpRx. The centerpiece of this initiative is a website that will offer Americans prescription drugs directly from manufacturers. If the president can strong arm big pharma into offering big discounts, it could help millions of people struggling under the weight of prescription costs. But skepticism abounds. Can TrumpRx really move the needle on affordability?
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in America's healthcare crisis. Welcome to the politics of new America. On the show today, the promise and pitfalls of TrumpRx, plus the potential fallout from Hegseth's military meeting and a little on the government shutdown. I'm your host, Nathan Stone, and with me tonight is producer Josh Carmody. TrumpRx, this is the first I'm hearing of it, but it does really feel like the meme where it's like, I want Obamacare, we have Obamacare at home. TrumpRx.
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Yeah, it's a very Trumpian program, which, I mean, is obvious with the name, but just the way that this has come about is really interesting and could honestly only have come about from this administration and Trump's utter disregard for political rules and norms. So it's worth talking about and I, every now and then.
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I like to throw a glimmer of positivity onto the show. So this is as close as we're getting this week. Tonight though, I wanted to talk about a couple of things that happened last week that we kind of touched on at the end of our last episode and that have in fact come to pass. The first of which is- we keep ending up right. We do, yes. All the way back to our first episode, we've been saying stuff.
01:56
that has happened and it's kind of upsetting to me. is, yeah. There's really kind of a monkey paw thing going on here to be like, oh, hey, you were right, but what I thought was terrible. Mm-hmm. Yup, but you were right. So the government shut down this past week and what this will mean for
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regular people and for federal workers and for the economy are kind of just things I wanted to touch on here because this isn't a situation that ends until one side of the Senate or the other buckles. uh The best case scenario for either political party is to successfully blame their opposites for the shutdown.
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And that's really the only reason that this shutdown is happening from a Republican standpoint. uh The money issue that kind of both sides are going after here is part of uh the Obamacare funding, basically. It's an argument over whether benefits from
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Obamacare that were continued by the last administration and were funded in the last fiscal year will continue on to the new fiscal year. Of course, Republicans are saying this is a tremendous waste of money. We can't afford this. And Democrats are saying people need this and we're finally going to draw this red line in the sand. So where this kind of leaves the government is in a state of limbo with most operations ceasing.
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only what is deemed essential services continue during this time. roughly, just to give you some idea, there's about 850,000 federal workers that are going to be affected by either being furloughed or laid off, possibly permanently with some of them uh as per Trump's threats, which he did reiterate, I believe, again today. So there's
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a lot riding on this for both parties. strangely enough, there's not really anything that needs to be done to get government up and running again. It just requires a vote. And of course, the Democrats have the filibuster on that.
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The Republicans need 60 votes to pass this. But there is, like we discussed on the show before, the, everyone calls it the nuclear option. It's basically- was about to say, are we gonna talk about the nuclear We're gonna talk about the nuclear option. This is what Republicans use to pass all of Trump's nominees, his 48 sub-cabinet nominees. And they could do the same thing with this.
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impasse where they could change the rules to only require a simple majority to pass this funding bill. However, a lot of Republicans have no issue with the government shutting down, so that's unlikely that they're going to do this unless suddenly public backlash turned on them and they were the ones being solely blamed for this shutdown. Unless it really hurts polling numbers?
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I don't think you'll see the Republicans budge on this. So it really comes down to will the Democrats remain kind of strong in their efforts. And the whole thing, of course, is political brinksmanship, but it has a lot of effect on normal Americans. uh So it can disrupt uh social security, air travel.
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nutritional support for women with infant children. There's a lot of effects here, a lot of federal programs that just cease when this happens. And the cost to the economy is roughly $30 billion per week that this continues. So a lot going on here, but something very strange started popping up on federal government websites.
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ah as they started to go into this shutdown. Of course, because employees are away, there's not a lot of services and things on these websites that are still able to function. So there's a banner ah that goes up on a federal website when during government shutdown that just kind of lets you know, hey, there's a government shutdown. These things are not.
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active, you know, we can't process these, we can't do this for you. But this time it got a little uh editorial. So the United States Forest Service, for example, had this banner. The radical left Democrats shut down the government. This government website will be updated periodically during the funding lapse for mission critical functions. President Trump has made it clear that he wants to keep the government open to support those who feed, fuel and clothe the American people.
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Uh, the FDA? Mission critical activities of the FDA will continue during the Democrat-led government shutdown. Please use this site as a resource as the Trump administration works to reopen the government for the American people. You can go on dozens of federal sites and find similar things like that. The only one that I found that took a neutral tone, somehow, by some incredible grace,
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Was the FCC. Well, they already got their bag. They're like, well, we can't take any more heat. we better play a low profile every year. But yeah, theirs is entirely 100 percent factional. Jimmy Kimmel's got him running scared. So these are uh obviously overtly political messages from federal agencies, which is not something that they are.
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supposed to be doing and in fact there is a law on the books about this it's called the Hatch Act and It was a federal law passed all the way back in 1939 and it basically limits political activities of federal employees as well as some state DC and local government employees that kind of work connected to federal programs so the whole idea behind the law is that
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it's going to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, but also to protect federal employees from political coercion. Or as they said back in the 30s, I'm not gonna let you spread that gossip, see? Exactly. So people are crying foul about this, of course, and saying that it violates the Hatch Act. Is anything likely to come of it? We might see a lawsuit or two. uh Chances are that the government will be reopened.
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by the time any of this gets figured out, but it is another bleak illustration of the hyper-partisanship that has gone uh into every crevice of the federal government. And just the kind of long arm of the Trump administration in creating just the most
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petty shut down notices that they can. And it's a small thing, but I wanted to point it out because it is kind of um like so much of this. It's small, but it's concerning. And it's not something that you would have seen in any previous administration, uh Democrat or Republican. Yeah, I feel like there's no one way to kind of pinpoint uh the types of like a
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encompassing one word or type of way to describe the bad that they're all doing. ah But this is one of those types. And I think just, yeah, all those little things add up. But then they also do really agree just in your face bad stuff, too. Yeah, they've got they're on a spectrum of evil. Allegedly. Oh, I, I really don't like the spectrum of evil.
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uh It doesn't spark joy. So that's that's kind what I wanted to say on the government shutdown as it continues as more things come up. We may talk about it some more or if it if it gets worse and worse. But they're also refusing to uh swear in a democratically elected official from a special election. Yes. Where she's from. I believe she's from Arizona.
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And uh yeah, yeah, so she would be very important vote in doing a little Epstein file releasing, which for some strange reason, the Republican Party doesn't seem too interested in. yeah, so she, God only knows when we're gonna see her uh actually sworn in for this. But the government shutdown does.
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have a convenient effect of making everything uh slower and harder in DC. So yeah, and Mike Johnson's when they reached out to his people, because of course, he won't say it himself. But Mike Johnson's his people said, uh when everything goes back into session, then they'll be sworn in. But he already dragged his feet on it. Like there was enough time before the shutdown to swear her in there was
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two other, earlier in the year, two other special elections that were won by Republicans that he swiftly did within 48 hours of each one, I'm pretty sure. So it's all bullshit. Absolutely. The fun, terrible thing about Congress is that if they are sufficiently motivated, a lot of things can happen really fast. So the time arguments never really fly with.
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with me for that kind of thing. If they want to do something like that, it can get done pretty darn quick. I guess it doesn't help when you're like wanting to see what porn your son is recommending to you and then you got to go check that out. You just can't help yourself. uh Oh, yeah. Just in case anyone doesn't know, Mike Johnson and his son have a uh pornography like don't watch pornography app.
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uh That if either one of them watches pornography it alerts the other one to it so that they're like each other's like buddy and not watching poor oh My god, so he's just getting porn wrecks from his son Well, I mean if it's so good that the Sun couldn't resist it right like you you be like, okay, well Like oh, there's some new age shit Something you've never seen before
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Yeah, that is truly, truly bizarre. It reminds me of a little bit of, do you remember Promise Rings? Oh Do you remember it? Like, did you ever go to school with anyone who had a Promise Ring? I did. that I knew of, but like I definitely existed in the time of it. Maybe it was a little after me or somewhat before, cause I feel like there was a time for them.
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And then I feel like I kind of missed it. And then when the Jonas Brothers started to get popular, which was like as I was on my way out of high school, then they started coming back around. Oh, I forgot the Jonas Brothers really kind of had a revival of that. Yeah. Yeah. I just remember it because it was it was. This weird advertisement um that that people were making that everyone else just kind of like you just kind of you're like, OK, that's kind of.
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Odd, sure, you do your thing. And that's kind of how I feel about, uh, I'm going to have sex, but I want you to know I'm having it five years from now. Five years from now, you remember my face. This is a face that's having sex. Yeah. Not a virgin's face in five years. Uh, yeah. So, uh, let's, let's talk a little bit about war. Department of war. Yeah.
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The Department of War? sorry, the King Seth? Yeah, yeah. So last week we got our answer of what was this big military meeting going to be? And I said on last week's show, was like, OK, this is either going to be deeply disturbing or really funny because it's
15:33
It could have been an email and everyone's going to be upset about that. future was like, why not both? Why not both? Exactly. I love being right about both of those things, or I guess being wrong, depending on how you want to score me on that. was 90 % of it was this could have been an email. And then there was 10 % that was deeply disturbing. So Hegseth spoke first and he was followed by his boss.
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and spoke for I think 45 minutes. 44 45 minutes. He was out there for a while. I just silence. Yes, I downloaded his transcript so I could go through it properly. And it's, it's a doozy. I will give Hagseth credit. He stays on topic far better than Trump does, which is no large feat, right? That's not a hurdle that it's hard to clear. But he did it. So
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Couple things I wanted to talk to about Hegseth's speech. Most of it is kind of rah rah nonsense, ending wokeness, stuff that we kind of knew they were already doing, the war on DEI in the military. Bloody Marys are now a breakfast meal. Exactly. But there's a couple of points that he made that are actually going to have a very
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dark real impact on people serving in the United States military. The first was changing the way that military fitness is done and the idea that every rank needs to be physically fit from from a private all the way up to a four star general and the fitness tests that that he is saying are going to be coming in is
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Basically the male standard fitness. And so that's a problem from a few different uh angles. The first of which being your generals are old. Yes, some of them might be a little overweight. Do you know how many generals you see on a battlefield? It's zero, it's just zero. You don't see them. They don't even a lot of times exist.
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on the same continent as stuff that they're overseeing. uh But also, by doing this, and especially using kind of the male fitness standards as opposed to right now there is a different fitness standard for women than there is to men, is that you risk forcing out uh of the military a lot of uh female soldiers.
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And because there are uh female combat role personnel. And that's actually kind of a big problem for the United States military because for years and years, the U.S. has had a real problem meeting its recruitment targets. And actually, just last year was kind of the first time they were really back on track. And Trump in his speech afterwards took credit for it.
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that people are signing up for the military because they love Trump and they want to serve in Trump's many wars. And that's not actually the case. uh The Biden administration overhauled military recruiting in 2022, designed an entirely new program from the ground up, targeting different demographics, know, kind of reinventing uh the military recruitment machinery for the modern era.
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And so they did see a bump in recruitment, but for men the bump in recruitment was about 8%, which not bad. But for women, it was close to 20%. So there's a lot of junior female officers and non-commissioned members in the United States military right now that are kind of fresh, but also, you you've...
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put thousands and thousands of dollars into training these people. And now you want to hold them to an entirely different standard, a standard that they might not be able to meet just on the basis of physiological differences, right? If you are a biological female, there are certain things, know, muscle mass, that kind of thing, that just aren't the same between physiological men and physiological women. So...
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This is a real issue that is going to drive people out of the military that, up until this proclamation, had no problem serving and doing everything that was asked of them. The other thing that he mentioned was reinstating facial hair guidelines. Basically, for the longest time, if you wanted to be in the military, clean shaven. That was the only way you could do it.
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Militaries, especially Western militaries, have started relaxing that rule, either for religious accommodations or just as kind of a recruiting thing like, hey, we're not as stuck up as we used to be. You know, we don't mind if you have a little beard or that kind of thing. Look, working at Disney World, they started letting them have beards. You know, the military can follow suit. Exactly. If it's good enough for the mouse, it's good enough for the mite.
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I think that's on the floor of the Pentagon. you anyways walk in. But in this, this might seem like a little silly thing, but it really isn't for a single group. And that group is uh black men. And there's a very common skin condition um that black men often have that keeps them from
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uh Basically shaving close, right? Like you always kind of have to have a little bit of stubble and uh I'm gonna try and pronounce it here. Pseudopholicute. Oh, here we go. Pseudopholiculitis. And it causes painful acne like bumps um that actually can leave scars if you try and close shave with this.
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And this has been a problem that has been known about for decades in the military. And for a long time, know, black service members just had to deal with it as best they could because of these regulations. But it's also on many documented occasions kept people from getting promotions from from moving up the chain of command because they would get basically allowances, um special
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dispensation to keep their hair, their facial hair longer. But it led to a lot of uh prejudice and basically kept them from serving roles that were forward-facing. you couldn't be a recruiter, for example, if you had any facial hair, because that's not what the army or what the military is looking to show out uh when potential recruits walk in.
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Um, things like serving in an honor guard, right? Just anything that kind of where people might see you with your, your terrible, terrible beard or your God forbid your stubble. And so by removing these policies that have come in over the last 10, 20 years, they're going to be forcing people out of the military, specifically, uh, women and,
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black men and
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Moreover, Hegseth reiterated that, you know, they were going to be toning down this whole thing of people being able to anonymously report their superiors or their colleagues for infractions. uh Some of them quite major, things like sexual assault, for example, which the military has always had a terrible record with. And again, this is targeting
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groups that are underrepresented in the military but have been growing uh sections of what makes up America's military. And what you're going to be left with is where you were several years ago, a military that struggles to recruit, struggles to retain, and doesn't represent the nation that
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at large, uh you know, because it lacks any kind of
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God forbid I say it, diversity. uh And to digress a little bit, one of the things that I find absolutely fascinating about these cultural institutions, so the military is and has been since at least the end of the Second World War, a cultural institution in the United States. The United States military is active in the community and represented in ways that
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other Western militaries just simply aren't. um And I like to compare it to another cultural institution in the United States, and that's the National Football League. And what's incredible is that we're seeing a divergence here with where the military is going with football. And if you grant me this, both of these organizations are cultural touchstones. Both of them have been
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working to modernize and to bring in different demographics for at least the last five years, probably closer to 1015.
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But what's really interesting is watching football.
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you see an organization that is of course outside of any government control, but that understands where the United States is and where it's going, as opposed to kind of this backwards thinking from the military and the federal government. Despite all of the anti-wokeness, all of the ridiculous stuff going on now,
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I don't know if you've seen a truck commercial recently. Honestly, I haven't. Okay. They're going full in on America. It's almost satire at this point. Like bald eagles soaring and screeching, know, airplanes with the red, white, and blue contrails. Watching a truck commercial nowadays is an experience.
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You get your hands dirty. Yeah. You bleed red. And you have sex with your truck. That's basically it. and those are some of the commercials that air. But the NFL still does, you know, they still advertise uh the flag football for girls. They still advertise. They have a whole campaign. I believe it's something like Poor La Cultura.
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I'm sorry I don't speak Spanish, but it's basically for the culture in Spanish. And it celebrates Latinos in the league, but also kind of the Latino legacy in football. And they air these all the time. And so you see the difference between an organization that is a cultural touchstone that understands that, oh, hold on a second, almost a third of Americans are Latino at this point. Instead of the military, which
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you did and now is kind of cutting off anything that's not just making the military white again. If the military entered the NFL now, they'd be like, yeah, and we're going to have a white running back and everyone would be like, sure. You want to that? There's nothing in the rules that says you can't. But I don't know. I don't know. I guess you don't like winning, but OK. Yeah. So.
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It's honestly a really weird place for the military to be, but this is the thing. Hegseth is an ideologue, right? He's part uh of the party that really kind of believes in this old school, you know, what America was, made it great kind of thing, that is just so wildly out of touch with what the country is today.
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that it's going to have a major detrimental impact. Another thing that he hinted at, and this hint is not a strong enough word, basically, came out and said, is that they're going to be looking at firing more of the top brass of the military. And again, we know who these cuts are going to target. We know why they're being targeted.
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But all that this is likely going to do is, you know, lower the overall experience base of the American kind of high command and seems kind of really self-defeating. Unless, of course, you want to remake the military into the new Republican image and as another
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kind of plank in this remaking of the federal government that we've already seen, which is clearly the case. It's just such a monumental undertaking and one that will have real effects, I think, on how the American military is seen by Americans. uh The American military has enjoyed a wide degree of popularity amongst the American people for decades and decades, and that has waned uh
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over various kind of imperial misadventures like Afghanistan and Iraq. Vietnam. Vietnam. it's still comparatively, of course, uh to most other Western countries, it is still held in a place of high regard. And I think that's really threatening. uh That is way more on Hegseth than I wanted to do, but I really got into it there. Trump, on the other hand.
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was this was a classic Trump speech. I downloaded the the transcript for that so I can go through and I was like this is every Trump speech I've ever I've ever read or listened to a lot of a lot of blaming Biden for stuff. We're going to create a hundred and eighty five thousand jobs. Yeah. We're to fire some people first but you fire hundred eighty five thousand people. What do you get? Hundred eighty five thousand jobs. It's just good math. So yeah, is his normal his normal anti-Biden rhetoric.
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His normal America's the hottest country in the world. Just all of his recent playbook stuff. But he did uh talk about some things like going into more American cities that the military was going to have a part to play in this, that it would be good practice for the military, in fact, to do this, which is a mind boggling statement that
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Firstly, what are you practicing for? And secondly, maybe don't practice war on American people, where I would be with it. He specifically mentions San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles as very unsafe places and says we're going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war too. It's a war from within.
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Controlling the physical territory of our border is essential to national security. We can't let these people live. um So yeah. He walked off stage and he marched them into Portland for some reason. Yeah. The hotbed, the nest of Antifa. Yes. Yeah. I heard and the head of Antifa was spotted in Portland several days ago. assuming Trump at this point assumes that the head of Antifa is like a man ant.
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And that's what he thinks he's fighting. It's like a 1950s sci-fi movie and there are just mants everywhere. Oh my god, yes. that's what an antifa is. Yeah. God, that's what I... There's a better world out there in the multiverse somewhere where it's just like, yeah, it's like a giant spider invasion or attack of the 50-foot mantis or like...
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Giant what was the giant crab invasion movie? I love that movie. There's like a million 1950s monster movies that are like a brighter attack of the giant crabs or giant crab invasion Yeah along those lines fantastic movie if you've ever seen it Yeah, I really wish that was the case uh He did at one point talk about gather up our scientists. We have to stop the robots He did what at one point talk about firefighters getting
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uh shot off of their ladders in some of these democratic cities by I don't know, maybe Antifa. If were getting shot off their ladders, we'd have backdraft six by now. Yes. So I tried my absolute hardest to find any evidence of this ever happening and could not. The closest thing that I found that was at all in the realm of possibility
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was a very uh mentally ill young man uh lured firefighters out to basically he started a wildfire and then and went on a shooting spree but that did not happen in the middle of a city while firefighters were saving I suppose babies from buildings so yeah this is some of this stuff is is absolutely just
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completely fictitious, but it's a Trump speech, so you have to kind of anticipate that. uh It's deeply disturbing, but also I guess this is not entirely new information that he would say this to two top generals, also kind of opened with a joke that, you know, if they didn't like what he was about to say, they could leave, but of course it would cost them their career. I think a lot of this
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this meeting was kind of a, we're in charge now, you better get used to it type of thing. Because otherwise, there's not a lot of, of reason to fly in generals from around the world to do this, right? You have to be making a strong statement here of this is a new era.
36:00
We are remaking the military in our image and a lot of you won't be around because of that. Yeah, it was like Satan's E3 presentation, basically. uh E3, man, rest in peace. I remember back in like when that started, like in the early aughts, that was like, yeah, well, I think it was well before that, but it big around in the 90s. Yeah. And then it was.
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uh kind of when shortly before the the we like like when you start to get like around Halo 2 Halo 3 era, that's when it like started to turn into like the big thing concert. OK. It was like, you know, Woodstock for video games. I don't think I ever was cognizant of it before that point, but it was it there was I remember going back and watching like things from it then when it was like Nintendo talking about the GameCube and it's a it's a boring like it's for uh
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For the industry, right? It's for for the board. It's for a few people writing articles. Yeah, it's not as interesting. It's not celebrities and the crazy stuff that they started doing. And then they turned it into a spectacle after that. Yeah. That early spectacle era, though, maybe just because I was a teenager at the time. I was like, I'm going to go to E3 someday. was pretty fun. I mean, I think something that's still worth
37:21
Going back and looking at just a for going to inject some levity into this episode. Please is Sony uh announcing and talking about the ps3 at at e3 and What an absolute disaster that it was for them that it almost tanked them like really really hard on the entire launch of the ps3 Wait, uh was that the one where they didn't really focus on the games at all? They were just like this is like they just had like a bunch of like
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the old CEO and stuff like that coming out. didn't they didn't do what the other Microsoft and Nintendo did, which was like get people that could like talk to. Oh, OK. Yeah. Kind of like, you know, bring some like personalities on like they could just write a script for like it was just these old guys that didn't know what they were doing. But then they I remember they talked about one game. I think it was Genji two. And the guy comes out and he's just like, so this is Genji to a game where you take you you play and take a role.
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in battles that actually took place in ancient Japan. And then five minutes later, while he's playing the game. So here's this giant enemy crab and you attack its weak spot for massive damage. OK, I do remember that particular quote. And then like the price was like insane. was like five hundred ninety nine dollars in 2006. Like it was the most expensive one. Like, yeah, there was a huge thing. And then they got voted the worst at E3 and Sony was like, well.
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We're going to take our toys and go home and they were like not going to come back. They were going to tank the whole thing. ah But, you know, 20 years ago. Oh, God. Here we go. Then you just destroyed all my levity that I got from that. No, no, that was it was better times, better times. All right. Let's talk about drugs. Yay. Yeah. So Trump, our ex. So this is something that you might have come across. It's been making
39:13
uh making some headlines recently and this is a site that won't go live until early next year and the site itself, this is kind of the heart of TrumpRx is this website it's not going to sell or distribute the medications itself but consumers that go on it will be able to search for their medicines
39:42
and will be redirected to manufacturers direct to consumer channels. So it's it's kind of a amalgamation of information on where and how consumers can can get direct from uh manufacturer prescription drugs. Presumably wouldn't imply that they should be cheaper.
40:11
I'm assuming. Yeah. So that is the of idea behind it. That is the implication. Yeah. And as part of this, Trump has been aggressively kind of going after pharmaceutical companies for months to lower their prices for US patients. You're going to be able to get your POSAC. You're going be able to get your Robitussin. You're going be able to get TUSDUP. oh
40:39
This all kind of hinges on a executive order that the president signed in May uh to I don't want to say force because it's very hard to force a private company to do something but but to encourage with all of the persuasive power of the United States federal government uh directing drug makers to start offering US patients.
41:09
their most favored nation prices. So most favored nation basically is just slang for we want your best deal. And he said that there would be consequences if they did not. And he put this under the direction of health and human services to come up with price targets for these drugs. And so that was moving quite slowly over the summer.
41:38
So Trump actually wrote to the CEOs of 17 major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, with basically a list of demands and gave the companies until uh this past Monday to comply. Now, I mentioned Pfizer specifically because Pfizer actually is signed on now. They're the first company to sign on with this Trump Rx.
42:08
And so there's a little bit of momentum behind it now. And we'll see where kind of these other pharmaceutical companies fall. But Pfizer is one of the largest ones. So it's definitely better than not having them on side. uh Now, we don't have a whole lot of details on what these prices might look like, other than the fact that in some way, or form,
42:37
They're going to hopefully be cheaper than going through insurance or paying for them yourself. Yeah. So now it does kind of step on the toes of some manufacturers who have already set up channels for US patients uh that they can buy direct without going through their insurance. So Novo Nordisk.
43:07
Those are the folks that do Ozempic.
43:11
They actually will sell direct to consumers for $499. I don't know how much Ozempic that gives you a supply. Yeah. And so the list price of Ozempic is just under. Oh, sorry. It's for a month. It's for a month of Ozempic. For $499. A month's worth of hits of Ozempic. While the list price is
43:40
just under $1,000 US. So again, that is significant. That's 50 % cheaper. Is it 50 % cheaper than going through your insurance if your insurance covers this, covers part of the drug cost? It may or may not be, right? It depends on your insurance. So a lot of it is gonna be stuff like this. And it seems like what's going to happen
44:08
with TrumpRx is it's going to be a site that you can check to see, oh, hey, can I get this cheaper just paying out of pocket than my insurance? And in that case where it's an option, right? And especially in the United States where healthcare is so expensive and insurance is so unreliable and almost never, you know, looking to actually act in
44:38
Your favor.
44:41
It is nice to maybe have another channel to get the medication you need, especially if, for example, your insurance just says, no, we're not, you we don't cover that drug or your plan doesn't cover that drug at all. If you have to pay list price for it and Trump Rx has it for 50 % off, that's actually a really good deal and something that will help Americans.
45:10
Um, and I should note too that Pfizer, when they came out saying they would support this and they're, they're on board with Trump Rx, uh, they have agreed to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Medicaid. Um, as well as, as kind of do this Trump Rx. So this is, I think maybe the first time on this show we've talked about Trump's
45:39
authoritarian streak in a way that might actually benefit everyday Americans. There is it's so odd to see this type of an initiative from this administration. Probably one of the most conservative Republican administrations there has been. But Trump Rx has a little bit of a uh
46:11
socialist flavoring to it, which is really funny. Because of course, they would hate it if you said that. But the idea that the government's got the bacon bits like the shakeout. Yeah, it's definitely the shakeout ones like bacon bits of socialism. Because the idea of a Republican president, strong arming industry into signing up
46:39
for a government program that will distribute their or help distribute their drugs at a cheaper cost to Americans. It does not compute. It's just it's utterly bizarre. But it is something that Trump has harped on for a long time. it was one of his campaign promises and planks. And. He did not too long ago say like, we're going to bring down the price of.
47:09
prescription drugs by 3500 percent. Yeah, like something like that where it was like, so the pharmaceutical companies are going to pay you to take the drugs. Like some crazy number. didn't make. Yeah. One of the articles I was reading, I think it quoted him as saying, yeah, like 1500 percent. And then I and God bless them for this. think this might have been CNN. uh They put in in they put a little em dash and they say
47:39
And it just said something experts say is impossible. Like, yeah, you just asked a mathematician, huh? You like, can you get 1500 % off the price of something? No, no, you can't. But it's it's it's a great it's a great quote. uh So. This is this is really. Kind of uh a. Interesting use of.
48:10
the kind of unitary executive that we have come to know under Trump, and one that I think is...
48:23
strangely positive, even if this ends up being something that is largely ineffectual because of just the way that the pricing pans out between insurances and kind of buying it separately, right? Like even if for most drugs and for most people this doesn't make sense, the fact that there is this
48:50
this option being created. The fact that Trump, of all people, is taking Big Pharma to task on drug prices for Americans, and Americans are the most ripped off people when it comes to drug prices, uh probably in the world, this is, it's honestly hard to see a downside, even if it isn't everything Trump promises it.
49:14
promises that it will be, which is almost certain because no one over promises like Trump over promises. Yeah. And I mean, I still would hope that if there's anyone listening that is kind of knows about this is banking on this. Do not count your chickens. No, they hatch because I don't think this is something you should put all of your faith in. Just where you said, Pfizer kind of agreed to like this and to like price cuts to Medicaid, but they're cutting Medicaid.
49:42
They're gutting Medicaid. what at the end of the day, what is Pfizer really giving up? They're kind of like, you know, it's almost, uh you know, they're saying it just to look good. But then all the Medicaid gets cut. So they don't actually have to bother with that because there's no money going into that anymore. And now you have this Trump Rx, which is, I guess, completely subject to their whims. you know, I think without
50:10
any sort of legislation that comes in that it's like, well, there's laws. It's just a fancy search engine where the pharmaceutical companies can be like, oh, well, this one, nah, I want this actually to be a higher price this time. You're exactly right. And
50:28
There's now like Pfizer. Pfizer has come out and said that, you know, the drugs on Trump Rx that that it manufactures will average around 50 % off of of kind of that MSRP. But again, that is something that they might just price in in the future. Right. And so you might see. Everything jump by, you know,
50:58
50%, however much, to kind of cover the fact that they're offering it cheaper through this. So it's far, far from a perfect system, but the American healthcare industry, and I hate calling it an industry, but it is more than anything else in the United States, uh is so shambolic and just such a...
51:27
huge, massive, churning beast, right? So much of the American economy uh flows through healthcare, right? So much of what makes up the GDP of the country is healthcare services, is healthcare related, right? Healthcare related fields. It's the fastest growing industry, not only in the United States, but in a lot of uh kind of the world that is rapidly aging. So it's...
51:56
Yeah, it's important and it's overall, it's a positive. But oh, yeah, I certainly don't want to sound because I fear that I'm coming across like the people who say, well, we can't have universal basic income because the corporations will just raise everything by that much. You know, I think it is a good idea as long as it comes with legislation that prevents that price hike. So and to your point here,
52:25
So the Secretary of Health and Human Services, this was in the May executive order, is ordered to propose a rulemaking plan uh around most favored nation pricing that they're going to force on manufacturers. So the question around that is what kind of teeth will that have? Will that be a, oh, we're going to sit down and talk about it with the manufacturers every now and then and,
52:54
If they're naughty about it, we're going to wag our fingers or is this like you will do this because we said so and it could Go anywhere between those two points with this, right? This is this is one of Trump's kind of projects So he might be he may be very strict on big pharma. It also could be the kind of thing where He set this up. He's going to declare victory and he will never think about it again
53:21
In which case it's probably gonna lean towards. Oh just you know set the prices you want. It's So I'd kind of be more fine if he was sending people along that were like hey, maybe yeah Adderall's 25 % off this week. you're sleeping with the fish The other thing about this executive order is that it's it's ordering the health health and human services to do things that the agency may not actually have
53:50
authority to do. ah In which case it would open it up to lawsuits probably from the pharmaceutical industry around what they can actually do to in terms of rulemaking for the industry. nothing is settled and everything is kind of up in the air uh but it's
54:18
It's a framework right now. what we'll watch and see is kind of how does TrumpRx go from its nebulous beginnings now to something that is a uh functional system to help people get drugs cheaper uh in the new year. And what
54:42
what that kind of looks like. And it's one of these things that I think is probably going to get lost in the flurry of crazy that is all of our weeks forever. But it's one that if you are a victim of the health care system in the United States and you're paying through the nose, especially for, you know, expensive prescriptions, keep an eye on this because it likely isn't going to help everyone.
55:11
It might not even help most people, but there's the potential here for certain people on certain medications to maybe bypass expensive uh costs through insurance by buying direct. Even if they get it set up and it does kind of fumble the bag initially, if it's running the next time the Democrats take over, they can use that as a bargaining chip to be like, well, we'll run it better.
55:39
It'll still be called Trump Rx. Yeah. And they get their little win, you know, like they could end up setting up something that down the line could be turned into like a legitimate force for good. Absolutely. If they if they don't follow through at this time. Yes. But I mean, it's hard to say. Exactly. Yeah. And not to I know I spend a lot of time on this show uh harping on the Democrats for not living up to even the lowest expectation that we would have of them as a party. But
56:09
The fact that Trump has now done this, if and when you retake the White House, and God forbid you get the Senate as well.
56:24
If you don't have action on healthcare that is at least five, 10 times better than what Trump is doing with TrumpRx, I don't want to ever hear from you again, right? This is the party that is supposed to be on the little guy's side in terms of healthcare and
56:51
All of this incrementalism, this Obamacare, and Obamacare is honestly pretty terrible. It's so much better than nothing. But what it actually is, is a subsidy to the insurance agencies to cover people they would not normally cover. Which means that you are funneling bags and bags of taxpayer money, billions and billions of dollars, to these parasitic organizations. Just so that
57:21
You can get a uh range of coverages for American citizens. This is not the complete reformation that American healthcare needs. Obamacare was always a, well, what can we pass, right? It wasn't the, how do we fix this system? Fundamentally, how do we fix this system? It was a, what is the biggest band-aid we can get through Congress for?
57:51
for people. And it did help a lot of people that could otherwise not have gotten coverage.
57:59
But it has so many flaws, so many failings, and Republicans have put so many holes into it at this point that you're just like, is it still at least the bandaid it was? Or is it at this point, is it a bunch of rags over an open wound? I'll say it like.
58:18
Civil war rags on a civil war wound. Oh, no, let's get real graphic here. Oh, I can I can see the gangrene from here. It's bad starting to smell like almonds. Oh, no Oh, no, you just take take the arm take the arm. It's too late. Uh, so This is it's a it's a weird one from from trump But it is kind of consistent with his populist uh politics and I
58:48
think it's something that over time could become useful. yeah, that's it. We're ending on a high note. I feel like we should time stamp this, maybe make a little plaque for ourselves. We can put it on our over our bedroom. Just like look at it. Sometimes we like, oh, yeah, that was a pretty good one. But yeah, that's that's going to about do it for tonight. think Josh, have any?
59:16
I think if uh you're thinking about all the stuff that is going on with the Trump administration, with ICE especially right now, ah and the things that are happening to immigrants and citizens alike, ah it's good to think about something that Norm MacDonald once said. ah I think the worst part is the hypocrisy.
59:45
Yeah, there's no shortage of that going around. Alright folks, thanks so much for listening and we will see you next week. Bye bye.
01:00:03
Thanks for listening. you enjoy the show, please subscribe, give us a five star rating on your podcast platform of choice, and tell all your friends. The Politics of New America is hosted by Nathan Stone and produced by Josh Carmody. You can follow us on Blue Sky at Politics New America.
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