WASHINGTON, DC - We’ve been asking the same question since May: why? Why take a bipartisan effort to lower drug costs and poison it with politics? Why do it all again now?

Democrats like Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) are asking Speaker Pelosi the same question: WHY? Here’s Rep. Spanberger in a POLITICO Magazine story ?

• “Take, for instance, the wheel-spinning effort to reduce prescription drug costs. ‘We passed two good bills out of the subcommittees and then we put them on the floor,’ Spanberger recalls, at which point her party’s leadership added divisive language related to the Affordable Care Act. ‘And then we're shocked when they don't pass with bipartisan support. Well, they were bipartisan coming out of committee, and we put what we knew what would be poison pills in them. Why? Is it that we don't want to give a president a win if we sign a prescription drug bill into law under [him]? I don’t know. My suspicion is there’s a fair number of people who don't want to give the president a win. But that's not what it should be about.’"

Energy and Commerce Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR) put it this way, it’s so your leadership can “score their political points and leave the American people hanging… maybe that’s what they want.”

Now, it’s déjà vu all over again ?

• Inside Health Policy: GOP Was Close To Drug Pricing Deal With Dems Before Pelosi Bill Out: “House Energy & Commerce Republicans said they were close to a deal on capping seniors’ drug spending and reworking the Medicare Part D benefit before House Democrats decided to push for government price negotiation.” That's true, Republicans and Democrats were working very closely to lower drug costs for consumers, and then Pelosi's plan brought those discussions to a halt.

Bottom line: This is what Walden means when he says “It doesn’t have to be this way.” We could pass bipartisan bills into law to lower drug costs for American families desperately in need.

Why is Speaker Pelosi doing everything in her power to ensure that doesn’t happen?

ICYMI from May 15, 2019 ?

The Washington Post: Democrats are putting a political pothole in the way of bipartisan drug pricing bills

WASHINGTON, DC – As reported by The Washington Post, House Democrats are playing politics by combining bipartisan bills to lower drug costs with partisan bills to bail out Obamacare.

Republicans and Democrats had been working together on provisions to bring generic drugs to market faster by incentivizing more competition among generic manufacturers to ensure patients get the earliest possible access to more affordable prescription drugs. Now, instead of delivering a victory for the American people, Democrats have chosen to spike this opportunity to lower drug prices.

The Washington Post: The Health 202: Democrats are putting a political pothole in the way of bipartisan drug pricing bills

The House will vote tomorrow on a package aimed at lowering prescription drug prices — one of the few health-care issues getting across-the-aisle momentum this year, due to overwhelming public support. But in a move that alienates Republicans, Democrats have tacked on measures reversing some of the Trump administration’s controversial actions on the 2010 health-care law.

The package includes three provisions, all recently passed unanimously by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, that would remove barriers to generic drugs entering the market. But there’s little chance Senate Republicans — let alone President Trump, who has vowed to keep fighting for Obamacare repeal — would sign off on the other four. Those measures restore ACA outreach funding cut by the administration, block its expansion of leaner health plans and fund state-run marketplaces.

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Republicans even tried to advance their own alternative that would instead use the savings for extending funds for community health centers, the National Health Service Corps and other public health programs. They’re dubbing the Democrats’ bill the “Obamacare Bailout Act of 2019.”

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Click here to read the full article online.