Posts tagged #Canada
Congress Must Ratify the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement
Photo source: Frazier Institute
Thriving U.S. oil and natural gas production has helped contribute to our robust economy. Free trade in energy between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico is a big reason why our energy production is so strong. Without the provisions of the USMCA, this trade could be jeopardized.
Delaying this agreement would be devastating to the progress our industry has made over the past decade. It’s vital that Congress act now to enact the USMCA.
Read more: Pass the U.S.M.C.A.
Importing Bad Ideas on Drug Prices
Photo source: CNN
One feature of the political moment is that ideas that first appeared on the left (tariffs) are gaining support on the populist right. The latest example is a GOP plan in Florida to import prescription drugs from Canada, which is impractical, unsafe and unlikely to reduce prices at the pharmacy.
The Florida Legislature has been moving on a plan pushed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis that directs the state health agency to set up a prescription drug importation program. Other states like Colorado are pondering similar schemes, and Vermont is well along in setting one up.
The thinking is that prescription drugs are too expensive, so the U.S. should import them from countries like Canada that impose price controls on medicine. State employees and the Department of Corrections are among the intended beneficiaries. State Medicaid programs already receive 20%-plus discounts on drugs that would be hard to top with importation.
Read more: Importing Bad Ideas on Drug Prices
Looks Like the Northern Border is Just as Dangerous as the Southern
Photo source: CNN
Americans are well aware and focused on the need to protect our Southern border. But little thought has been given to the need to protect the border with Canada.
Their citizens are seen as educated, polite, and mostly English-speaking. Their poorest citizens aren't marching defiantly toward our border in a giant invasion of “caravans" aided and abetted by their national government. But that doesn't mean the border to our north can't pose its own specific type of deadly risk.
An enormous, robust, and illegal opioid drug supply is streaming across our border with Canada, killing and poisoning tens of thousands of our citizens each year. Just last month, Canadian authorities busted a huge smuggling ring headquartered in Calgary that was producing an astonishing amount of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs — 120,000 pills a day. That’s nearly 160 million pills a year from just one source!
Read more: Death by Canadian fentanyl: Northern border security is no joke, either
