Group of conservative leaders trash Trump’s 'socialist' proposal

A group of over 50 conservative leaders has come together to speak out against Donald Trump's new pricing proposal, according to The Hill, tarring the idea as "socialist" and urging Congress to reject it.

Per The Hill's report from Thursday, the coalition of leaders from "conservative and free-market organizations" signed off on a letter to Congress opposing Trump's "most favored nation" pricing proposal for pharmaceutical drugs. The proposal calls for the federal government to negotiate with drug companies to lower the prices of certain medications in the U.S. to the lowest price for which they are available abroad.

So far, the Trump administration has managed to reach "most favored nation" deals with 16 companies. The president has called for this policy to be codified into law by Congress, and unlike many of his other proposals, the idea has bipartisan support. A bill to codify this pricing plan was introduced in the House last year by a group of representatives, including Republicans Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Andy Biggs of Arizona, as well as Democrats Ro Khanna of California and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio.

In the letter sent to Congress, the group of conservative leaders sympathized with the cost issues plaguing the American healthcare system, but warned that Trump's plan is not a real solution and claimed that it will "import socialist price controls and values into our country."

“In addition to doing nothing to address foreign freeloading, MFN would reduce access to new cures and reduce U.S. global competitiveness, ceding ground to China,” the letter read. “While supporters of this proposal correctly identify the unique problems facing the American health care system — namely, wealthy countries paying artificially lower prices for prescription drugs than the U.S. and the fact that this depresses innovation and inflates our costs — MFN would not solve these problems. In fact, it would exacerbate them.”

Among the notable signatories on the letter were Grover Norquist, a conservative activist noted for his hardline anti-taxation ideas, and Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation alum and former Wall Street Journal Editorial Board member who once served as an adviser to Trump.

The group further argued that the idea that drug companies are not already pushing to lower costs is a "flawed assumption," and said that Trump's policy would bring on unintended consequences.

“If the U.S. implements the same price controls utilized by foreign countries, companies cannot expect to recuperate the [research and development] costs for the medicines they create,” the letter argued. “This will depress innovation and reduce cures available to patients while causing an unacceptable degree of drug shortages.”

Trump has faced similar pushback for his proposal to cap all credit card interest at 10 percent, an idea many Republicans and financial experts warn could result in vast swaths of Americans being shut out from credit altogether. These ideas have emerged as the president has attempted to contend with the problem of affordability in the U.S., which voters have consistently listed as their most pressing concern heading into the midterms.

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