Harris and Biden’s well-earned victory lap on drug prices
President Joe Biden, with an assist from the Federal Reserve, navigated through the economic crisis that his predecessor dumped in his lap. Despite skeptics and naysayers, he achieved the proverbial soft landing. Inflation is down to an annualized 2.9 percent; about 15.7 million new jobs have been created on Biden’s watch; growth has exceeded expectations; domestic manufacturing is up; and energy production is at an all-time high.
Donald Trump’s claim to have presided over the best economy ever is patently false. “Not only was [Trump’s] economy not the strongest in history; it wasn’t even as strong as it has been during Joe Biden’s presidency,” Steven Rattner, former Obama administration “car czar,” explains on his website. “Excluding the effects of covid, the economy expanded at an average annual rate of 2.6% under Trump but at a 3.5% rate under Biden. Job creation shows a similar trajectory. Excluding covid, Trump’s economy added an average of 182,000 jobs a month; Biden has grown the employment rolls at a 271,000 rate.”
On the presidential campaign trail, Kamala Harris can enjoy her share of credit for the administration’s successes. But if total job numbers and the drop in inflation fail to impress voters, touting more specific accomplishments might. Harris did just that on Thursday in an appearance with Biden in Maryland announcing the completion of Medicare negotiations with drug companies on the first 10 drugs designated for cost containment under the Inflation Reduction Act.
For less politically engaged voters, this news may have come as a total surprise. The Post reported, “Voters have consistently told pollsters that they believe drug prices are too high and that the government should be empowered to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies.” However, “only 36 percent of voters said they knew that a law required the federal government to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs for Medicare.” (Good news has been the best-kept secret during this administration.)
In the raucous rally with Biden, Harris declared, “No senior should have to choose between filling their prescription or paying their rent.” She touted her own background in fighting Big Pharma as California attorney general and in the Senate. Now, she argued, “Medicare can use [its] power to go toe-to-toe with Big Pharma.”
In a written statement, Harris expanded on the accomplishment, “During the two years since President Biden signed this landmark bill into law, we have cut prescription drug costs, capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month, and lowered premiums for seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare — helping millions of families get the care they deserve.”
The administration, including Harris, can take a well-earned victory lap. Drew Altman, chief executive of KFF, summed up the achievement in an online post: “Drug price negotiation. Significantly lower than current prices. Still higher than some other countries. The administration can declare a big win.” He added, “The left can ask for more. Drug companies can complain. People benefit. Goldilocks.”
The ecstatic response Harris and Biden received in Maryland was welcomed by the president. Neera Tanden, White House domestic policy adviser and a prime driver of the negotiations, told me in a brief phone interview, “He was touched by it. He feels like this is an accomplishment.” It’s one that past Democratic administrations have pursued unsuccessfully for years, she noted. “It is not easy to do difficult things.”
While this accomplishment most directly helps older Americans, the benefits may be felt by a much wider segment of consumers. The administration hopes that now that these drug prices are public (and below current insurance rates), the new prices will put “downward pressure” on the prices for all patients.
Prescription drug prices are one element of a larger economic narrative for Harris. Going after businesses that take advantage of consumers appears to be one of her strongest issues, according to a detailed messaging survey of battleground voters from the Democratic polling firm Greenberg Research. It found that, in addition to abortion, the infrastructure plan and the prescription drug cost controls, Harris’s most popular issues include a “crack down on tax evasion by the wealthy and big corporations,” instituting a 15 parent minimum tax and “going after greedy monopolies making super profits to lower prices and return money to consumers.” The following message stressing middle-class empowerment got an overwhelmingly positive response:
I know high prices are killing people. The hard working middle class has faced so many struggles. I helped with lowering drug costs and expanded the monthly Child Tax Credit. But the greedy big monopolies and big corporations are making super profits by raising prices. They have all the power. Trump told the big oil companies, donate a billion dollars to my campaign and I will repeal environmental regulations. He’ll give even bigger corporate tax cuts. They plan to cut Social Security and ban legal abortions. I will tax billionaires to pay for expanded childcare and Child Tax Credit. We need 100,000 more police and support closing the border to get control. The middle class needs to call the shots again.
In a speech on her economic plans in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, Harris continued to build on these themes with robust policies that include expanding housing stock and enhancing the child tax credit, adding a $6,000 credit for children under 1 year old. She would also scrutinize mergers of food companies that could impact consumers, as well as exempt service workers’ tips from taxation.
During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago beginning on Monday (and the rallies in Pennsylvania on Sunday and Wisconsin on Tuesday), expect to hear more about these and Harris’s other plans to take center stage. She will frame herself on the side of working- and middle-class people — Americans that Trump cannot begin to understand.
Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for The Washington Post. She is the author of “Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump” and is host of the podcast Jen Rubin's "Green Room."
