Why The US Political Matters... Belong, Here: As A Long-Standing Life Sciences And Health Care Delivery Blog...

Tangerine has now had [checks notes] nine full years, to fulfill his 2016 promises, and offer any concrete US health care delivery plan -- one that competes with or improves on Obamacare. He held votes 60 separate times, to repeal it -- and failed. He sent it to the Supremes four times. That too largely. . . failed.

So, here -- after nine long years, for Trump to openly say he has some ill-defined “concepts of a plan” on Obamacare (but not articulating even a single detail). . . is simply disqualifying.

In his closing, he asked why Kamala Harris hadn't done the things she talked about (in one third the time). That may be fair -- against Mr. Biden -- but it is impossible to say that Veeps can act wholly alone -- in any administration. In his, 45 eviscerated Mike Pence regularly -- and then encouraged the J6 rioters to. . . "hang him", calling him a coward. Charming. [Seriously, what in four years did Veep Pence do? Nothing. Right.]

45 promised reduced US prescription drug prices -- also, in 2016. He did nothing to make it happen. By way of comparison, Biden/Harris did get it done, just this year. Price negotiations with federal agencies -- on top ten by sales US drugs are now the enforced US policy.

Finally, perhaps trivially (given all the rest), at this point -- nine years ago, he said he'd release his IRS 1040s after the 2016 election. He never did.

To this day, no one can even verify what his net worth might be -- or whether he's ever paid his fair share of his US income taxes in any respect. And several felony indictments strongly suggest grand juries have seen enough documentary evidence, to reach the reasonable belief that he did not.

In point of fact, what the NYT, ProPublica, EmptyWheel and WaPo were able to piece together from public court documents. . . strongly suggests he is in at least open disputes with the IRS, into the hundreds of millions of dollars. So he has a very strong motivation to use a (now improbable) 2024 win to blunt that charge, and / or offer specific "payouts" to people like Elon Musk, from federal coffers. In this regard, although I do believe EVs are the future, we must remember that Elon Musk's companies receive by far, the largest federal subsidies of any single group of businesses, in the US -- and that has been true for over 11 long years.

So. . . when it comes time to pay for early childhood education, or public STEM education curricula (a feeder to domestic life sciences innovation), or clean energy, or drug benefit plans, at the federal level. . . I'd expect Tangerine would seek to first reimburse Mr. Musk for these $100 million plus "campaign donations" here in 2024.

We cannot afford a federal government apparatus that has been sold off, to his cadre of real (as opposed to imagined, fellow) billionaires (as was the case with DeJoy and the postal service in 2017).

So yes, when it comes to US politics and policies -- these matters will affect US health outcomes significantly. And there is only one clear choice: we go forward -- not back. Forward, toward a government. . . by, for and of. . . the people.

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