Rx: House Passes H.R. 3

By nearly straight party line vote of 230-192, the legislation goes nowhere in Senate

H.R. 3 is officially titled the “Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act”, but better known as “Speaker Pelosi’s Prescription Drug Price Bill”, the cornerstone of the legislation is the “negotiation” of prescription drug prices for Medicare by the government and the pharmaceutical industry.

With two Republicans supporting, look for the Democrats, including Congressman Sean Casten and Congresswoman Lauren Underwood to call this “bipartisan passage”.

Source: California Target Book Twitter BOT

It’s still dead on arrival in the Senate, though if the Senate passes S.2543, hopefully a Conference Committee can strip the legislation of the price controls euphemistically called “negotiation”.

On Wednesday on the House floor, Congressman Sean Casten spoke in favor of H.R. 3, citing an Algonquin resident’s challenges with prescription drugs.

Source: Congressman Casten’s YouTube Page
Note: The C-SPAN graphic is inaccurate, Casten’s Twitter ID is @RepCasten

Within a half hour of giving this brief speech on the House floor, Casten held his first (and maybe his last) Facebook town hall with Q&A. His staff took the Facebook video and posted both parts on Twitter, which are below:

Something Casten said at the start of the Part 1 needs discernment:

“Medicare, since the George W. Bush administration, has been banned from negotiating with…with the pharmaceutical providers.”

Sean Casten, Part 1 Twitter video ~50 second mark
.

Everyone needs to be very clear, the prescription drug coverage by Medicare, known as “Part D”, was implemented during President Bush’s administration over a decade and a half ago.

Put another way, prior to President Bush, any prescription coverage was restricted through Part B, and that primarily through hospitalization.

And Part D coverage was meant to be implemented through private insurance companies to combine Medicare funding with private insurance access to medications.

But here’s Part 2 of Casten’s town hall:

As stated above, this bill will die in the Senate since Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared it for what it is, “socialist”. And in spite of two Republicans, Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA) voting for it, it is still partisan legislation.

As stated above, it is hoped the Senate legislation, S. 2543, will pass the Senate and force a conference committee for House and Senate conferees to work out the differences that Republicans and the President support, and that means dropping the government negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies.

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Comments

Rx: House Passes H.R. 3 — 11 Comments

  1. EVERY house Bill is “Dead on Arrival” in the Senate as long as Moscow Mitch is in charge

  2. Wonder if Casten, Underwood and Democrats will be as enthusiastic with a Bipartisan vote against impeachment?

  3. No Joe, every partisan legislation is “dead on arrival” as is what should happen, and House Democrats should have known better and stop listening to the leftists like the Squad.

    There is no way the President or Senate Republicans will approve the government “negotiating” the cost of meds, because if the pharmaceutical companies say “no”, 95% taxes on revenue.

    S. 2543 is the only legislation that will pass and be signed by President Trump.

  4. “Trump was unorthodox about drug prices during the 2016 campaign. He swore to stand up to the pharmaceutical companies, long revered as among Washington’s powerful interests. He told Time, in his Person of the Year interview in December 2016: “I’m going to bring down drug prices. I don’t like what has happened with drug prices.””

    And exactly who is paying 95% taxes on your planet?

    Here on earth the #1 pharmaceutical company paid LESS THAN 2% TAX!!!!!

  5. Can they really tax revenue 95 percent if a company refuses government offered price???

    If so, yikes and thank God for “Moscow Mitch.”

  6. Correcting, the 95% tax on revenues is in the legislation. Would it survive a court challenge is likely “yes” because the government has the power to tax.

    That is the biggest reason Republicans oppose this because it is not genuine “negotiation” on prices, it’s negotiating with a loaded gun pointed at you.

    Joe, the President still wants medications cost to come down. But in September, he firmly abandoned the price negotiations Pelosi wanted. And today, Pelosi at a news conference called the Republican alternative, H.R. 19, as too “incremental”.

    Some good news early tonight was the news release AARP Illinois sent out, asking for Senators Durbin and Duckworth to support S. 2543. NOT H.R. 3, but S. 2543, which does not have the price “negotiations” as part of the legislation, but has many of the components H.R. 3 does have, most notably capping Part D out-of-pocket expenses, though each version of the legislation varies on the amount.

    The sooner S. 2543 is passed in the Senate, the sooner both bills go to Conference Committee. If Democrats serious on trying to take significant positive steps to lower the cost of meds, they will drop the demand for “negotiations”.

  7. Who the H was Cummings? A left wing Democrat politician who hated Trump? A guy whose district consisted of Baltimore of which he did zero to bring positive change for the lack of positive direction by the incompetent Democrat leadership. In 2015, Baltimore erupted in riots including its young citizens throwing rocks, damaging police vehicles and fires in regards to an arrest of a thug.

  8. We got this guy on this blog who rails about the current Senate leader. He no doubt is brain dead, or watches CNN, MSNBC or other similar so-called news networks who do not give all the facts. A previous Senate Democrat leader from Nevada had circular filed (garbage can) numerous, numerous passed U.S. Republican House of Representative PASSED bills. This guy, Harry, was such a goofball and fraud that in 2012 he from the floor of the Senate in 2012 had declared without any factual data that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had not paid all of his federal taxes.

    Time after time proves that Democrats and their low information supporters have zero credibility about their claims. Do not trust any Democrat politicians nor their supporters. They are stupid and/or corrupt.

  9. I thought Casten came from money.

    He doesn’t need to repurpose old VW seat covers and make a suit out of them.

  10. Casten never worked a day in his life.

    He’s above it all, you see.

    And we, the Deplorables, are grist for his perversion mill.

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