Key Points

  • President Joe Biden said the federal Medicare program should negotiate prices for at least 50 prescription drugs each year, up from the current target of 20 medicines.
  • That proposal is one of several new health-care policy plans Biden will outline during his State of the Union address Thursday.
  • But the fate of his new proposals will be in the hands of a divided Congress, making it highly uncertain whether they will pass into law.
    • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      4 months ago

      From 2007 to 2011 Democrats controlled both the house and the senate. Obama was president from 2008-2012.

      Democrats squandered it.

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        Democrats only had a Senate supermajority for 72 days.

        Furthermore, a supermajority of exactly 60 votes only allows Democrats to pass something that 100% of them support. And Lieberman did not support anything more far reaching than the ACA, such as a public option.

          • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            4 months ago

            What’s your narrative? Democrats had control of both the Senate and the house with a Democrat president for years and somehow it’s still Republicans fault they did basically fuck all with it?

        • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          Doesn’t change the fact. Democrats had control of both the Senate and the house. They squandered it.

            • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              4 months ago

              And if that’s not sufficient evidence to believe either our Democracy is completely broken or Democrats are corrupt or incompetent then you must be someone who’s continuing to benefit from all of this while quality of life deteriorates for the rest of us.

              • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                4 months ago

                No, it’s evidence that Democrats are diverse. Not all of them agree with me or with you.

                And in a democracy, legislation requires building a consensus. That means nobody will get everything they wanted.

                • go_go_gadget@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  4 months ago

                  I’m really sick of this lecture as if I don’t understand that. I’m a human being who lives in reality I’m very familiar with not getting everything I want. I don’t buy a car for $20,000 and then complain it doesn’t have the quality of a $300,000 car. I will complain when the $20,000 car doesn’t deliver what I expect for a $20,000 car. This is no different. Democrats held a majority in congress for four years. What they delivered with that kind of opportunity was inexcusably insufficient.

                  • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    4 months ago

                    I think your expectations are too high. Democrats delivered at least as much as any other Congress in the past 50 years