Following is the Sen Sanders position on prescription drug costs as presented on his website:
Stop the pharmaceutical industry from ripping off the American people by making sure that no one in America pays over $200 a year for the medicine they need by capping what Americans pay for prescription drugs under Medicare for All.
I don’t know about you, but capping what Americans pay at $200 a year seems to have little to do with the pharmaceutical industry ripping off Americans. Isn’t the issue who pays what for the cost of the medication above $200?
Why $200? Think of all the non-necessity spending Americans do that costs more than $200? A pair of sneakers, a tattoo, a year at the local salon, a trip to a sporting event?
In all fairness to Sen Sanders no doubt some Millennial staffer likely writes this stuff, which may tell you something about the level of knowledge of people who support him.
Nevertheless, if we follow a strategy that further removes individual concern for spending and costs, spending will get out of control. Once that happens government must take steps to manage those costs. I’ll leave you to make your own list of how that works. 😱
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
“Why $200? Think of all the non-necessity spending Americans do that costs more than $200? A pair of sneakers, a tattoo, a year at the local salon, a trip to a sporting event?”
RD – There is the problem, stupid people buying stupid stuff all their lives. The only sporting events that I ever go to are the free ones, High School or College, that I have a friend with an in, or free tickets. Otherwise I watch it for free on TV. No tattoos. The last pair of sneakers I purchased at Walmart in July of 2019 cost me $26. I have never paid more than $85 for a pair of shoes.
A shoe repairman, told me years ago, buy 7 pairs of shoes and wear a different pair every day and you will never wear out a pair. I like boots and have 6 pair and never wear them more than 1 day at a time, they all look brand new, even though 3 pair were purchased over 10 years ago. Sneakers 1 pair every 2 to 3 years and I am good to go. Maybe I should go back to Walmart and buy 5 more pair for $130, then sneaker purchase would be no more.
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I don’t recall Bernie Sanders mentioning that China now is the main source of all medicines consumed in the U.S.
Particularly relevant today is the book published in 2018, ” China Rx: exposing the risks of America’s dependence on China for medicine”.
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Wonder what happens when they are forced to keep the medicine for themselves or the workers are unable to report to work to make our medicine? A reported side effect of Trump’s trade war is that some manufactures were able to import material before the tariffs took affect. Supposedly it is helping them during this pandemic keeping their own factories running since they had extra stock on hand. With just in time delivery in the supply chain, it makes you wonder what will happen on a globe scale when don’t go as planned.
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I’ve seen the negative impact of centralization for years. It works pretty well for our general defense and currency but for the one-size-fits-all policies of minimum wage, health care, child care, education, etc., it always moves towards bloated bureaucracy and inefficiencies, not to mention the inability to effectively direct resources at the local level. Bernie has NO experience running anything other than his mouth.
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So what happens if a drug costs more than $200? Who pays? What is Bernie meaning? Is he going to limit the drug companies so that they can never charge anybody more than $200? Aside from whatever people think of price gouging by big pharm, what do these people think will happen. Bernie talks about minimum wage, but what about a maximum wage? What if Bernie capped your wages at $200 a month? Would you still continue to work or produce? What is going to do, nationalize the industry?
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Dwayne, Bernie and all socialist want everyone but them to be equally poor. Look at where the standard of living is the worst, it is in countries or states where the government controls more and more of the average citizen’s life That is not what our country was founded on. It was to be limited government, not more government. Why is it so much more expensive to live in California? Because of government regulation. It is sad to say that with $37,104 in retirement income per year, I could not afford to live where I grew up in Southern California. But in Montana I can live well and save $1,346 per month.
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