Photo source: Washington Examiner
The U.S. House of Representatives is racing to pass a bill designed to address prescription drug pricing, but its confiscatory taxes would decimate innovation and undoubtedly reduce the supply of today’s medicines.
Two House committees—Energy & Commerce and Education & Labor—voted largely along party lines yesterday to advance H.R. 3, which is expected to be named after the late Rep. Elijah Cummings who died on Thursday at age 68.
Economist Doug Holtz-Eakin, a former CBO Director and now president of the American Action Forum, took a look at the CBO’s cost estimates of the Pelosi drug bill—which is only a partial estimate but which shows savings of $345 billion to Medicare Part D. That’s a big “savings” number that definitely gets the attention of members always on the prowl for new money to spend.
But at what price? “Now, if you do a little price-fixing…followed by a little extortion…you can save some money,” Holtz-Eakin wrote, adding, “it is easy to save budget dollars — just don’t pay for things.”
Read more: At What Cost?
