In a White House event held late Friday afternoon, ostensibly focused on the issue of drug pricing, Donald Trump sounded alarmingly incoherent. Were the media truly unbiased and reflective of public sentiment, one would wonder if they would even dare to compare the ramblings of Trump to any of his Democratic predecessors.
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Though viewers might quickly brush aside the outlandish statements made by Trump, a careful examination of his transcripts reveals a depth of absurdity that is hard to overlook.
Consider Trump’s remarks on prescription drug prices:
“And we actually did, and I was so proud of myself. We called the news conference. I announced it. It was one eighth of 1%, one eighth of 1%. Now, drug prices are gonna be going down a hundred percent, 400%, 600%, a thousand percent in some cases, but for one eighth of a cent. Uh, Bobby, think of that. I was so proud because for 28 years nobody had done it.”
“And, uh, now it’s, uh, I think back to that, I said I shouldn’t have had that news conference, but it is true. I was the only one that did it, but it was not very much. And now we’re gonna get, in some cases, a thousand percent reduction. This is gonna have a huge impact on everything from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid, anything where they’re buying any prescription drugs, it’s gonna have an incredible impact.”
“It’s gonna lower itself greatly.”
Now, for those keeping score, it’s important to note that mathematically speaking, it’s impossible to discount the price of any commodity by more than 100%. So when Trump suggests a reduction of up to 1000%, he’s essentially proposing that pharmaceutical companies would need to pay Americans ten times the price of the medication to encourage consumption.
While the lunacy of such statements may seem comical at first glance, a deeper exploration reveals an alarming disconnect from reality that marks the current political landscape.
