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Americans Who Need Medications Can't Afford Biden's Prescription for Drugs
December 15, 2023
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By Tim Tapp 

 

If the government wants you to buy something, it will try to bribe you into getting it using the tax system. These days, Washington bureaucrats desperately want you to buy an electric vehicle, and so they offer up to $7,500 in tax credits. State governments may pile on even more tax breaks (in California, it is another $7,500) to get you to do what they want. Buy a product you don't want to purchase for whatever reason (the cost, the lack of benefits, etc.). 

 

On the other hand, when the government doesn't want you to have something (for your own good, of course), it increases taxes on that product to dissuade you from buying it. That's why a pack of cigarettes costs so much. The District of Columbia's government recently calculated that taxes comprise 80 percent of the total wholesale cost of a pack of cigarettes.

 

That may make sense to you when it comes to cigarettes. Giving up smoking is better for your health, and you really should consider it if you are a smoker. (But that really should be your choice.) But now imagine that the government applied the same approach to important products like automobiles. It could place a tax that would effectively double the cost of a gasoline-powered car. The cost for a simple Honda Civic could change from about $25,000 to $50,000 overnight. Drivers wouldn't sit still for it. 

 

So why is the government considering jacking up prices on another crucial product, one that is vital to so many people's health: prescription drugs? Ironically, Washington may increase prices while lawmakers and the administration are claiming they want to make prescription drugs more affordable. The plan to make prescription drugs "more affordable" is a story that is so mixed up that it could only have been written in Washington, D.C. 

 

When the Biden administration enacted the ridiculously mistitled "Inflation Reduction Act'' in 2022, it actually ended up increasing inflation, as anyone who has shopped for anything in the last two years knows. It also included a provision that would impose a 95% excise tax on prescription drugs sold by companies that refuse to allow the government to set the price of that drug.

 

The bureaucrats call this "price negotiation," and they are careful to avoid more accurate terms like "price-fixing." But, of course, the federal government has all the power in this exchange. In the event that a drug manufacturer decides to charge more than the federal government is willing to pay for a drug, the IRS (and remember that the Biden administration is adding thousands of IRS agents to help it enforce its will) would collect the new tax. The additional cost would, as always, be passed along to consumers.

 

The problem is that this wouldn't make drugs more affordable. It would make them more scarce. (Scarcity equals higher prices.) It would also reduce future development, so the medicines of tomorrow might never be formulated. The tax would also limit the drugs available to seniors in Medicare Part D since the taxed drugs would only be available through the manufacturer – with the 95% tax added.

 

This taxing plan is taking us far away from effective health care policy. Instead of setting prices, the federal government should empower consumers through free market competition. Free markets are working, and over the decades, they have encouraged companies to develop and deliver effective new medications that help patients.

 

"Thirty-six percent of all NMEs (that is, 'new molecular entities' or 'new drugs') were developed in the United States," a federal report a few years ago found. "The United Kingdom was the next largest source of NME development (10.4%). Examination of drugs with patents (n = 288) revealed that 126 (43.7%) of the NMEs had their earliest patent filed by inventors in the United States." So roughly three times as many new drugs were developed in the U.S. as in England, the next largest country. 

 

That is largely because the U.S. does not fix prices, and price signals encourage drug makers to experiment and invent. This is precisely the sort of inventiveness that would dry up if free markets went away. 

 

The federal government tells us it wants to make drugs affordable and available to seniors. However, Biden's IRA is doing the opposite. We simply can't afford it.

 

Tim Tapp is the host of the syndicated, conservative talk show "Tapp" into the Truth. He calls East Tennessee home, where he broadcasts and writes. He also still works in Quality Assurance for a food manufacturing company as he takes up the cause of defending our republic. Find out more at www.tappintothetruth.com

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   Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. has issued a broad ban of “artificial colors by the end of his term in 2029 or face government intervention.”  While the new directive was focused toward the biggest companies in the food industry like PepsiCo North America, Kraft Heinz, General Mills, Tyson Foods, WK Kellogg, and JM Smucker (whom RFK, Jr. had meetings with the CEOs as well as representatives from the Consumer Brands Association), it is clear that all food manufactures and processors are expected to follow the edict.
   It is reported that RFK, Jr. told the executives that “removing artificial dyes is an urgent priority,” but he left what happens if the companies fail to comply intentionally vague. This ominous, open-ended threat was enough to make the markets react as stock for the food giants all dipped at a sharper rate than the S&P 500 in general (which was on a downward vector) pointing to investors’ concern about how the new directive will affect the bottom-line. (But to be fair, whenever the government gets involved to this extent, investors tend to get nervous, at least until they have a better idea of what the actual fallout will be.)
   How will the “removal of food dyes” policy affect the bottom line for food companies? Ultimately,, it is impossible to fully evaluate the question without knowing the ramificationsof non-compliance. After all, from a financial standpoint, it may be better to take the governmental penalty hit than a sales loss if the food is suddenly visually unappealing. People eat with their eyes, a,nd the U.S. market i,s not accustom,ed to seeing food that hasn’t been “dressed up” a bit to better meet an expected look. Add into the equation that there are surprisingly few “natural” food dyes that are as effective in coloring food items, and most are sourced in ways that are, shall we say, less than appetizing if you know the source. 
   This is a moment in time, however, where financial concerns may be overcome by both the true and the perceived health concerns that the dyes may present. The “Make America Healthy Again” movement has been picking up steam for years, well before it got its shiny new branding to fall inline with the Trump 2.0 administration. The American consumer has never been more conscious of what goes into their food and what the effects could be. This could put the food companies at more considerable risk of losses if the public believed that they were happy to risk your children’s health to pocket a little extra coin per unit sold. Especially given that companies like PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz, General Mills, WK Kellogg, and JM Smucker have different formulations, without many of the food dyes, that they have been selling in Europe for decades. 
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   The Islamic Republic of Iran has been a disruptive force in the Middle East since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Since the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a.k.a. the last Shah of Iran, Khomeini and his Mullahs set Iran on a course of destruction for both the modern Persian society that existed there at the time and their neighbors who did not subscribe to the Twelver Ja'afari Shia Islam imposed by Khomeini. This remains the path the theocratic Iranian regime follows today. Sunni Muslims, Christians, Jews, and anyone who exemplifies the concepts of Western Civilization remain a target of Iran or their proxies, either by open attack or terrorism.

   In recent years, Iran has decided to extend its influence beyond the Middle East, where it orchestrated attacks on Israel and Saudi Arabia and financed terror in Western Europe and piracy throughout the region. This expansion was born out of Russia's war with Ukraine. Russia found itself unable or unwilling to end the conflict quickly. Once the U.S. and most of Europe started sending "aid" and sanctioning Russia, Putin found himself in need of help from friends and frenemies alike. A new Axis (Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela) was formed as a result. An Axis that was, at least on the surface, allying with Russia against the U.S., NATO, and the Western World. Iran had been a long-standing ally of Russia, so it made sense that it would be part of this new Axis.

   A global financial partnership to end the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency, known as the BRIC nation bloc (named for its founding members: Brazil, Russia, India, and China) was formed in 2006, had its first summit in 2009, and South Africa joined the group in 2010 leading to an official name change to BRICS. However, this group of countries was largely unsuccessful and generally ignored by the world's financial powers as it was widely seen as a not-so-veiled effort by China to become the world's dominant economy. That changed in 2024 when China and Russia (two founding members) reached out to other nations that had issues with the various disastrous foreign policies enacted by the Biden/Haris administration, and a unified global financial force was born by expanding the group to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran (not to mention a long list of countries who have expressed interest in joining: Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.) You will notice that some of these countries have been enemies for a very long time and, despite joining this group, remain adversarial, even hostile toward one another. Only the bungling of Joe Biden on the international stage brought some of these people together to work against the interests of the United States. So, "Let's Go Brandon!"

   It makes sense that Russia would want Iran to be a part of everything they are doing. As I pointed out before, they have been long-time allies due in large part to the amount of oil and lack of refining capacity in Iran. There are other reasons, but the sweetheart deal they worked out so long ago to refine oil for Iran made Russia an indispensable partner in the eyes of Mullahs and both sides rich. However, since the 1980s, there is another reason why Iran has become a valued ally of Russia. What most people don't know, despite the best efforts of people like myself who have been telling anyone who would listen for years now, is that Iran has been developing drone technology since the 1980s and is one of, if not the world leader in drone production (especially military drone production). Much of Russia's drone capabilities is a direct result of Iran.

   That takes us to the latest threat that Iran now poses. The other members of the Axis have developed an appreciation of the Iranian drone. So much so that Venezuela opened its borders to the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah, not only allowing them to operate within Venezuela but to actually "oversee" elections in some regions of the country since about 2017. Then, in 2022, Venezuela provided Iran with 1,000,000 hectares of "farmland for cultivation." Nicolás Maduro visited Tehran that year, where he signed a 20-year partnership agreement "on cooperation with Iran in various fields." It seems clear that what Iran has been "cultivating" is a new poxy state similar to Syria before the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, only this time, it's within striking distance of the United States. The IDF even warned everyone in March of 2024 that Iran was arming Venezuela with weapons that were "very capable of hitting the U.S."

   Maria Villarroel, writing for the Latin Times, revealed in her January 11, 2025, article that Iran had built a drone development factory and was training Venezuelan military personnel at the El Libertador air base in Venezuela. One of the wide range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) being produced there is the ZAMORA V-1, used for one-way attack missions. (And by the way, Iran has indicated that it intends to sell UAVs to other countries in the region, a practice that could - and most likely will - destabilize the geopolitical landscape in Latin America.)

   Iran developed its drone technology and is still developing its nuclear capabilities, making it extremely dangerous to Israel, all the Sunni Muslims, Christians, and anyone who does not share their belief in the Twelver Ja'afari Shia tradition within its reach. Iran has strengthened the so-called Red-Green Axis, as it serves its purpose of advancing their belief in the eventual worldwide caliphate. And Iran has harnessed Venezuela as a proxy under the ruthless and illegitimate rule of Nicolás Maduro. All of this happened under the watch of Joe Biden, who, instead of working to prevent it, actually helped Iran to pay for it all. That includes an additional 10 billion dollars in sanctions relief issued three days after the 2024 Presidential election. So, thanks Joe, and one more time on your way out the door, "Let's Go Brandon!"

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