Ah, Republicans. Newspapers, TV and radio seem to always have a quote or two from Republicans to highlight some story. Unfortunately newspapers, TV and radio seldom do a followup to see how what they say matches up with what they do, or for that matter what they have said and done in the past.
What made me think of this was a combination of Chuck Grassley’s floor speeches against Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination just before the vote Thursday and Ashley Hinson’s gobbledy-gook answer to her vote against capping insulin prices.
It has rather amazed me throughout the KBJ nomination process that Republicans came up with the flimsiest accusations to throw at Judge Jackson. Many of them were flat out lies coming from the likes of senators Graham, Hawley, Cruz, Blackburn and others. Grassley, who likes to portray himself as an elder statesman of his party, did nothing to stop this character assassination. Rather he speculated on it during his time.
During his speech Thursday Grassley reached for very tenuous arguments to deny a highly qualified person a seat on the Court. That is no doubt the last we will hear about Grassley and his foray into stopping the Jackson nomination. The media will report it acting as if it were nothing and it will be forgotten.
Grassley’s display should be a focus of the upcoming election. How he and his party were vicious in their attempts to take Jackson out. And his demeanor in this case should be contrasted with his slobbering over much less qualified nominees Kavanaugh and Barret. Also let us not forget that he single-handedly stopped Obama’s nominee on a mocked up interpretation of the constitution.
But we will hear little of it. Just like we will hear little of Ashley Hinson’s gobbledy-gook explanation for voting against capping insulin prices at $35 a month. Although Hinson will claim that she feels the prices of drugs are too high we get this vote from her last week.
The price to make a vial of insulin costs about $2.28 to $3.42 per vial:
“After analyzing expenses for ingredients, production, and delivery, among other things, the researchers contend that the price for a year’s supply of human insulin (bolding mine – ed.) could be $48 to $71 a person and between $78 and $133 for analog insulins, which are genetically altered forms that are known as rapid or long-acting treatments. Examples of analog insulins include Humalog, Lantus, and Novolog.”
If it only costs about $133 to make a year’s worth of insulin, how much does it cost the patient? From singlecare.com: in 2018:
And, unfortunately, insulin prices have risen dramatically over the past 10 years. Between 2012 and 2016, the price almost doubled, according to the Health Care Cost Institute. In 2012, the average cost of insulin per diabetes patient was $2,864 per year. By 2016, it had risen to $5,705. Today, one vial of insulin can cost $250, and some people need six vials per month.
Quite a huge margin of profit, isn’t it. What does Ashley Hinson say?
Hinson says the bill gives too much control to the government. “It also sets a dangerous precedent here that the government should be able to control in the private sector the price of medications that Americans need,” she says.
Let me interpret – it’s better than the boogey of “gummint’ getting involved. Well, Ms. Hinson, we are the government and when someone is screwing us, we want it stopped. But much as Hinson’s votes against the American Rescue Act and the infrastructure ills the media will now forget about this horrendous vote.
Hinson’s opponent, Liz Mathis, had a very insightful interpretation of Hinson’s vote:
Mathis released a statement that says Hinson “would rather protect the profits of her pharmacy donors than deliver on her promises to Iowans. Instead of honoring her word and Iowans’ wishes, Ashley Hinson sided with party bosses and her drug company donors.”
And then there is Mariannette Miller-Meeks who claims like most Republicans that she is tough on crime and a law and order candidate. Yet when she had a chance to vote in the House Wednesday to charge Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino with criminal contempt of congress – which they did openly to the January 6th committee – Miller-Meeks chose to let the lawbreakers go.
Throughout these examples you can see that Iowa’s members of congress are much more interested in the so-called good of their party rather than the good of the country. Loyalty to party is what kills nations. Grassley, Hinson, Miller-Meeks – party before country!
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