Why prescription drugs prices are so high and how to force drug companies to lower prices

First we thought Martin Shkreli was the devil and he might have been but then we saw Mylan's CEO Heather Bresch, increase the price of the EpiPen From 2007 to 2016, from $100 to $600, 461 percent. If that weren’t enough, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals has raised the price of a leukemia drug to almost $199,000 a year.   The only way I heard about the increase in Ariad’s leukemia drug was because of a tweet from Bernie Sanders who said, “Drug corporations' greed is unbelievable. Ariad has raised the price of a leukemia drug to almost $199,000 a year.” 

Yet Martin Shkreli is the only CEO who gets punished? How can that be if Heather Bresch increased the price of the EpiPen From 2007 to 2016, from $100 to $600, a 461 percent?   If that weren’t enough taxpayers might have paid for Myan’s profits.  Also Myian didn’t develop the EpiPen. Meridian Medical Technologies developed the EpiPen which was approved by the FDA in 1987.  New York State opened an antitrust investigation into Mylan NV, saying the embattled drug maker may have ripped off local school systems that purchased life-saving EpiPen shots for students.

If that weren’t enough, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals leukemia treatment is priced at price of $16,560 a month, or almost $199,000 a year.  Why weren’t Heather Bresch, ARIAD CEO Paris Panayiotopoulos taken to the woodshed? How about paying $89,000 for a drug to treat muscular dystrophy? Marathon Pharmaceuticals pricing of the drug treating  muscular dystrophy is just another example of a broken system.  Where the same drugs from the same companies are available in Europe ad Canada at drastically cheaper prices. The problem is Medicare is forbidden to negotiate lower prices for drugs.  If Medicare was allowed to negotiate lower prices for drugs those savings can be turned over to the American consumer. 

One way to force change and allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for drugs would be for Americans to buy drugs from Canada and Europe which have the same drugs from the same companies are considerably cheaper prices.  That might force lawmakers to change the law and allow Medicare negotiate lower prices for drugs. 

Nothing to see here, just democrats being spineless and gutless

The democrats, what a spineless and gutless bunch.  They all voted for the war in Iraq and when they were challenged on it by the media, they said they were given false information by Bush Jr.  Funny, I knew back then that Iraq had nothing to do with Iraq and that it was all our friends in Saudi Arabia that planned, funded and carried out the attacks on 9-11.

Then we somehow elected a democrat as president who served two terms and is still one of the most favorable presidents according to polls. Yet, Donald Trump, a trust fund kid who was given millions of dollars and access to his dad's very successful real estate empire and failed  by bankrupting companies not once, twice, three times, but five times was elected president.  Why shouldn't we make a trust fund kid president after all, it worked so well the last time we did that under Bush Jr when every bank and auto company failed and president Obama saved them and brought them back to profitability.

Well now we have Trump as president and are hearing the same lines from republicans that we heard under Bush Jr, that's its un-American to be critical of a president, even though those same republicans were critical of both Bill Clinton and had him impeached for lying about affairs  and having them at the same time.  Those same republicans who said that  Barack Obama doesn't meet the requirements to be president since he wasn't born here, even though he was born in Hawaii.  The funny thing is that Obama didn't even need to be born here since his mother was.  This was why Ted Cruz was qualified to be president.  Both had one parent who was born here.  But no democrat challenged Ted Cruz's credentials to be president.

Now we have Donald Trump as president and one of the requirements for a president is to release his or her tax returns to see if there are any conflicts of interests.  Guess who never released his tax returns.  The man who made Obama releases his birth certificate, Donald Trump.  Yet democrats left the argument and Trump never released his tax returns.  

There are two reasons why Trump didn't release his tax returns and they are, he's lying about his income and doesn't have anywhere near the money he claims to have and two the money he does have is invested in Russia which is why he said over and over he will drop the Russian sanctions (that and Putin got him elected by hacking emails.)  Yet no democrat asked for investigations on this.   In fact only John McCain a republican is making this an issue.  Now we have Trump banning Muslims from traveling here.  But not all Muslims.  The only Muslims that are banned from coming here are from Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Sudan.  The other Muslims from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt are still allowed to come here, even though those are the countries that the 9-11 hijackers came from.  Yet the only criticism I hear is from John McCain and Lindsey Graham.  The democrats have left with their tails between their legs.

Now we have Trump's making up his cabinet and democrats started making a stink.  We have Betsy DeVos who has never sent her kids to public school and when asked about giving services to kids with disabilities she said its "up to the states" even though its a requirement for schools that get money to provide those services.  

Trump's next two picks prove his wants to return America to how it was under Bush Jr when the auto companies and banks were failing and Americans were losing 500K jobs a month.  We have Rex Tillerson who was the CEO of Exxon and is personal friends with Putin.  Why shouldn't he get approved, after all, Donald Trump wants to be friends with Putin and China already make  red hats?  Now all Trump must do is get them to write "making Russia great again."  Tillerson will fight for America to get off of alternative fuel and become once again addicted to oil so oil will go back to $150 a barrel, where it was under Bush Jr.

I find it amazing that no democrat made a point about Trump's hats being made in China or he fact that Trump has hired more illegals than any businessperson in the country.  Trump's next pick proves once again that he wants another economic crisis because he made Steven Mnuchin who singlehandedly  caused the economic crisis of 2009 was named Secretary of the Treasury.

My bet is that the spineless democrats will switch sides and all of Trump’s choices for his cabinet and Supreme Court will get pushed through.  Even though the republicans never even gave Merrick Garland, Obama’s pick for Supreme Court

Never got a hearing.  You might ask why the media isn’t reporting on all these conflicts of interest?  Because they’re covering the Real Housewives. 

Trump said Mexico would pay for the Wall

Donnie sat on a wall, now American consumers will have a great fall.  It appears that America voters had the wool pulled over their eyes.  The master con artist, Donald Trump now says that all Mexican goods will have a 20% border tax. Oh great, you say, smiling, they will pay for the wall indirectly.  Well, apparently you aren't a mathematician. It doesn't mean Mexico will be pay for the wall at all.  It means you still will pay for the wall, dumb ass.   

If Trump imposes a 20% border tax on all Mexican products it means that American consumers will pay 20% more for cars and car parts, machinery, oil and agricultural products.  

In fact, Mexico won't be punished at all. They will still make the same amount of money they've always made on their products.  But you will make up the 20% difference.  That means that the price of goods you purchase that are originally from Mexico will cost you 20% more than they did before?  Who will get the additional 20% that the came out of your pockets?  The American government.  So if you look at it carefully you'll see that the only people being punished with a border tax are American consumers.

So Trump is making America great again by charging the US consumer 20% more for Mexican products.  I don't think that will be music to any customer's ears.  I don’t like saying I told you so, heck maybe I do.  Maybe next time you’ll listen to me.

All the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put America back together again.

Why the Keystone Pipeline creating jobs is a pipe dream

President Trump needs a lesson in supply and demand.  When you add too much supply the price of  the product or commodity falls.  Lets take oil because of president Trump executive order for a Canadian company to build a pipeline across America that will transport Canadian oil to China.  First off how does this benefit America?  It doesn’t.

What happened to oil when we started opening up oil drilling in America and Alaska under Obama?  Oil went down from $150 a barrel where it was under Bush Jr  to $50 where it is today.  So drilling more oil out of the ground and sand actually adds too much supply and thus decreases its price.

What will happen when the pipeline is up and transporting the oil from Canada to Mexico?  Here’s what will happen.  Oil prices will fall even further leading oil drillers to stop drilling and shutting jobs down.  So in actuality the Keystone pipeline is actually a job killer.

Here’s what President Trump must do instead of creating an oil pipeline that will lower oil prices and then cause massive layoffs in oil sector.  He must sign an executive order to repair bridges and tunnels in this country that are falling apart. Obama tried to do this, but republicans stopped him. This will create long term employment.  He must tell Canada to forget its pipeline which is a pipe dream job killer.

We need to learn from OPEC if we want to play in the oil production business.  When oil falls below $60 OPEC knows it’s no longer worth it to drill.  So they stop drilling.  Oil majors know that they only make money when oil is $60.  So adding more supply when oil is about $60 will only cause oil majors to stop drilling leaving us with an empty pipeline.

Instead of drilling more when oil prices are low, we need to stop drilling and wait until prices go up and there’s a reason to drill.  The oil that comes from Canada is extracted from sand, which is more expensive than drilling from the ground.  This is why the republican idea that Keystone Pipeline creating jobs here is a pipe dream.