Joe Manchin, speaking to his constituents in West Virginia, a state where the unfettered ability of The Federal Government to negotiate drug prices with big pharma could really help a lot of people, lamented the fact that The Inflation Reduction Act did not go far enough towards reaching that goal, and laid the blame for that squarely at the feet of Kyrsten Sinema… but without speaking her name.
“Manchin, touting the benefits of the new law for West Virginia at an event in his home state, alluded to his fellow centrist senator when lamenting that the drug pricing provisions weren’t more aggressive. The landmark policy included in the legislation empowers Medicare for the first time to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical industry.
On Medicare and prescription drugs, he said: “We could basically — competition — let them go out and negotiate, and we can save a lot of money to a lot of people and take the burden off.”
“We had a senator from Arizona who basically didn’t let us go as far as we needed to go with our negotiations and made us wait two years,” Manchin said in a video of the event that was viewed by NBC News. “Those type of things — I don’t question anybody, everyone’s responding to their own constituent base. But we did get something. And it’s the first time we made a positive move in that.”
The law allows Medicare to negotiate the cost of 10 drugs in 2026, a number that is slated to rise gradually in the years after. Many Democrats wanted to begin earlier and give the government broader power to negotiate prices with the industry.”
I don’t agree with Manchin on everything but in this case he is spot on.
I believe Manchin is completely sincere in his desire to help struggling older and poorer folks (which, to paraphrase Lincoln ‘God made many of and put a lot of them in West Virginia’) with their drug costs, but Sinema had her own constituency of pharmaceutical executives, investment bankers and hedge fund operators to look out for, ya know.
The video in the tweet below is private but the reactions are not:
Manchin in WV: "We had a Senator from Arizona who basically didn't let us go as far as we needed to go with our [prescription drug pricing] negotiations and made us wait two years"https://t.co/GuaL9STfQN
— Pavan (@ppavnr) August 19, 2022
You know it's bad when you're to the right of Manchin…
— Nana Sue says Save democracy VOTE Blue in 22 (@SusanDFinSD) August 19, 2022
Yup
Throwing shade at Sinema. Love it.
— Nate Kurtz (@Kurtznate) August 19, 2022
Me too also.
Lmao even Manchin knows she sucks
— Ari (@AriPearlstein) August 19, 2022
Sadly, true.
But, Sinema still looks better in that Arizona seat than any Republican the GOP will put up for it…
Maybe not much, but some.
She should absolutely be primaried in, what is it? 2024?
But let’s not be so nasty about it that the GOP picks off her seat.
Pot VS Kettle anyone?
It’s not really apples to apples, Joe’s from a Trump+40 state, Sinema is from a 50/50 one…
Man that refuses to go along with his party when needed CRIES about his twin sister when she fails to go along with his party.
Neither they nor we would benefit from them going actual GOP. Don’t like them being this influential? Got a chance to do something about that in 82 days.
Manchin just threw Sinema under the bus because he knows which way the wind is blowing. The neophyte from Arizona is no longer useful to him.
She’s not much good to anyone except McConnell. Yet her vote is essential to our majority.
We will get the government we deserve if all the putrid behaviors & lies don’t fire up the citizens to vote. The list of horrors is too long to list. If we think we can sit on our collective butts & enjoy the fruits of democracy in a world of dictators & dickheads, we will be sorely disappointed. Maybe the majority will smarten up & vote these cretins out of power. Our best chance is rolling up fast. There’s plenty of reason to hope.
That’s pretty rich, coming from Manchin. Yeah, Joe, we would have liked to not renew oil and gas leasing projects in order to get more green power projects through, but you kind of screwed us on that one. Definitely pot calling kettle black.