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"The Biden Administration last week [early December, 2023] announced it would be seizing patents for drugs and drug manufacturing procedures developed using government money.
A draft of the new law, seen by Reuters, said that the government will consider various factors including whether a medical situation is leading to increased prices of the drug at any given time, or whether only a small section of Americans can afford it.
The new executive order is the first exercise in what is called “march-in-rights” which allows relevant government agencies to redistribute patents if they were generated under government funding. The NIH has long maintained march-in-rights, but previous directors have been unwilling to use them, fearing consequences.
“We’ll make it clear that when drug companies won’t sell taxpayer funded drugs at reasonable prices, we will be prepared to allow other companies to provide those drugs for less,” White House adviser Lael Brainard said on a press call.
But just how much taxpayer money is going toward funding drugs? A research paper from the Insitute for New Economic Thought showed that “NIH funding contributed to research associated with every new drug approved from 2010-2019, totaling $230 billion.”
The authors of the paper continue, writing “NIH funding also produced 22 thousand patents, which provided marketing exclusivity for 27 (8.6%) of the drugs approved [between] 2010-2019.”
How we do drug discovery and production in America has a number of fundamental flaws that have created problems in the health service industry.
It costs billions of dollars and sometimes as many as 5 to 10 years to bring a drug to market in the US, which means that only companies with massive financial muscle can do so with any regularity, and that smaller, more innovative companies can’t compete with these pharma giants.
This also means that if a company can’t recoup that loss, a single failed drug can result in massive disruptions to business. To protect themselves, pharmaceutical companies establish piles of patents on drugs and drug manufacturing procedures. Especially if the drug in question treats a rare or obscure disease, these patents essentially ensure the company has monoselective pricing regimes.
However, if a company can convince the NIH that a particular drug should be considered a public health priority, they can be almost entirely funded by the government, as the research paper showed.
Some market participants, in this case the famous billionaire investor Mark Cuban, have attempted to remedy the issue of drug costs in America by manufacturing generic versions of patented drugs sold for common diseases."
-via Good News Network, December 11, 2023
#united states#us politics#biden administration#executive order#prescription drugs#medical news#healthcare#healthcare access#biden#big pharma#drug prices#public health#nih#national institutes of health#good news#hope
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Were this to be done, it must be done through Congress—not another legally dubious Executive Order. The continual circumventing of our Constitutional processes on so many issues by the Biden Administration is both outrageous and dangerous.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others are looking into the discrepancy further.
Almost three years ago, during his first week in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order instructing the Justice Department to stop renewing its contracts with private prison companies. The news was like a glimpse of blue sky for critics of the controversial sector—especially after four years of Donald Trump, who had fostered a cozy, mutually lucrative relationship with the private prison industry.
The order restored an Obama-era policy first announced in 2016—and later suspended by Trump administration—after a damning federal report found that private federal prisons were less safe and less secure than their publicly run counterparts. No longer would the Bureau of Prisons sign deals with corporations to lock up people serving federal prison sentences. Nor would the US Marshals Service, in charge of detaining people while they await trial on federal criminal charges, enter or renew contracts with those same companies.
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Bloodbath? Duh! - 03/18/2024
The left and the mainstream media went nuts over Donald Trump's description of what would happen to our car industry, which is obviously a huge part of our country's economy; from China building large car factories in Mexico to sell cars into the United States should he not be elected this November, describing it as a "bloodbath." It's obvious to me and many other people that he was referring to the extent of the damage to our economy that would occur from hurting the car industry. He was specifically referring to that. But of course, the left purposefully takes that word out of context and used the non-applicable meaning of massive bloodshed, instead of the applicable meaning of a "2. b: a major economic disaster. a market bloodbath." - Merriam Webster dictionary. I think that just shows you how desperate the left is because they see Trump's popularity rising in so many demographics such as Black, Asian, Latino, and now even younger voters. I also think the majority of the left really know what Trump meant, but all they have left to do is to go after him with falsely based attacks and banana republic, kangaroo courtroom legal battles which are beyond ridiculous, in my opinion. I do, however, fear that actual bloodbaths may occur from Biden's migrant crime and likely terrorists' attacks from all the illegals stampeding across our borders. Trump was looking for a word, or a shorter phrase to describe the crimes occurring by the illegal migrants that are flooding our country by the millions because Biden's 94 executive orders to reverse the Trump border policies which kept our illegal border crossings historically low. I've got the words he should use, "Bigrant Crime!" And seriously, the so ordered deep-stater goons talking points of a physical bloodbath is so obviously absurd that it exceeds the level of ridiculousness by a factor of infinity squared... - Duh!
#donald trump#trump#biden#joe biden#bloodbath#banana republic#kangaroo court#kangaroo courtroom#illegals#illegal migrants#stampede#executive orders
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Biden signed an executive order yesterday with the aim of protecting and expanding access to abortion services
The order:
Protects out of state travel to get abortions as well as purchasing medication
Protects access to contraceptives. Health and Human Services are to take any (crucially) legal steps to enable access to medical contraceptives and family planning services
Protects against privacy violations and deceptive practices. (Does this mean that HHS is expected to crack down on crisis pregnancy centres?)
Protects patients, providers and clinics, including mobile clinics, who are accessing or providing reproductive health services.
This order also claims to do a lot of other stuff, for more information please go to the official fact sheet linked in the article.
Also I think it’s super important to note that nowhere in this order does Biden codify abortion rights. He’s still defending state rights to decide the legality of abortion within that state, even though we know that states that criminalize abortion or putting women in danger.
I personally think this is him dangling abortion rights in the face of voters and asking them to vote Democrat or else. All said, it’s still important to know that there are now legal protections for you if you choose to travel for abortions or if you purchase medications.
#haven’t seen any posts about this yet so thought I’d get the info out#especially with the climate around abortion rights I understand how important it is for some people to know this#abortion rights#abortion#united states#joe biden#executive order#female reproductive health#feminism#us politics#you know what’s weird how come I never hear anyone talking about feminism on this site anymore#ahhh throwback to when I used to be a political blogger
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So, Biden just signed Executive Order #14115, which puts sanctions on Israeli extremist settlers in the West Bank. Thursday, Feb 1st, 2024 he signed this order.
This is the first time the USA has ever issued sanctions against Israeli citizens. At least 4 Israelis have already had these sanctions enforced against them.
This doesn't help Gaza, but... it's the most any US President has ever done for Palestinians. I don't know what to think about it.
#executive order#executive order 14115#president biden#joe biden#biden administration#palestine#israel#us politics#uspol#politics#american politics
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my food stamps got cut by $14 more??? After it was already cut by $60 a few months ago???
I'm now receiving $185 less a month in food stamps than I got a few years ago. And food prices have nearly doubled. This is bullshit.
#all of my assistance has been cut!!!#we can send billions to i*rael but we can't afford to feed people?#biden has done nothing to stop this#he hasn't stopped greedflation he hasn't done anything about homelessness or poverty#he hasn't stopped the anti-trans laws from being passed in many states#he hasn't raised the minimum wage#hasn't given us healthcare#hasn't done anything about the rental crisis#everything became more expensive under his presidency EVERYTHING#and yes the president absolutely does have the power to stop these things. executive orders exist#whenever Trump does these things it's 100% his fault#but when Biden does these things all of a sudden it's ''you don't understand he's trying so so hard but the mean republicans won't let him'#my life and the life of everyone I know has gotten worse under this presidency#we can SEE the results#there are a couple of good things he's done but they're far outweighed by the bad things#.bdo
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How Joe Biden Can Help Workers Without Congress
Did you know Joe Biden can help American workers right now, even without Congress? He can sign three executive orders, affecting a fifth of the economy and transforming millions of workers’ lives.
Biden has made campaign promises to support workers. Here are 3 ways he can fulfill that promise.
First: require that the federal government contract only with unionized companies whenever possible. This would give workers more bargaining power in every industry from healthcare to telecoms to food service to tech to defense.
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Btw, if you’d like my daily analyses, commentary, and drawings, please subscribe to my free newsletter: robertreich.substack.com
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Back in the last century when I was secretary of labor, the Chamber of Commerce sued me for trying to do something similar. The Clinton administration had issued an executive order barring federal contracts with companies that permanently replaced striking workers. A federal court struck it down, ruling that the administration hadn’t shown that the executive order was necessary to save the government money.
The way to ensure this executive order holds up is to include evidence that unionized companies save the government money. And that’s not hard to do.
Unions may deliver higher wages but they also have been shown to deliver higher productivity. And higher productivity saves the government money.
Secondly, discourage union busting. Biden can require that federal contracts go only to companies that pledge to remain neutral in efforts to unionize.
Companies routinely use an arsenal of union-busting tactics. Some are blatantly illegal. A third of companies fire employees who try to form a union. They harass and intimidate their workers. About half threaten to close up shop or slash wages and benefits.
Why should taxpayers subsidize companies that illegally quash unions?
Third, deny federal contracts to companies that break labor laws. Biden can require bidders on federal contracts to disclose any labor violations in the past 3 years. This would just be reinstating Obama’s executive order, which Trump revoked.
Companies that break the law and hurt workers shouldn’t be rewarded with lucrative federal contracts.
A policy like this helps workers everywhere. One study found that when the Labor Department announced penalties for violating safety standards, other companies in the industry improved their safety standards.
Taken together, these three executive orders will improve the lives of millions of Americans.
Make it happen, Joe.
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love that post about ‘so can biden cancel student debt or not’ where it’s just random waffling with maybe one sentence per paragraph actually touching on whether biden can do it, where halfway through they admit that, yes, biden could literally just write an executive order to cancel student debt - but Actually He’d Just Be Directing Federal Agencies to Carry it Out and It Wouldn’t Be Immediate So You Leftists Would Probably Bitch Anyway - and then somehow they continue just talking about nothing for another six paragraphs
#it's very funny because they say 'biden doesnt have the power! also trump abused the power of executive orders and overreached'#like hm isn't that exact same power available to him. and then they go 'yeah he *could* do it but cmon'
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Earlier this month, over a dozen civil rights and religious groups sent a letter to the White House calling on President Joe Biden to act on reparations by signing an executive order to study reparations by Juneteenth. This comes after a decadeslong push to establish a 13-person reparation commission in Congress.
Shortly after the end of the Civil War, formerly enslaved families were promised by Union leadership 40 acres and a mule. The promise was never fulfilled, however a reminder of the centuries-old promise remained in Congress for decades. H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, has been introduced in every legislative session since 1989.
In this May 19, 2021, file photo, Hughes Van Ellis, a Tulsa Race Massacre survivor and World War II veteran, and Viola Fletcher, oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre, testify before the Civil Rights and Civil Liber...
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
In recent years, the bill has gained traction politically. In 2019, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, hundreds of members of Congress and over 350 organizations such as the U.S. Conference of Mayors, NAACP and ACLU publicly announced support for reparations. H.R. 40 was able to pass out of the House Judiciary Committee in 2021, however, it has failed to come to a vote in the House or Senate.
When asked about the letter from racial justice advocates calling for Biden to meet with them and sign the H.R. 40 executive order, now former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she was unaware of the letter. However, she said there was a range of executive orders the White House was considering including police reform and student debt.
Psaki previously reiterated in 2021 that President Biden supported the study of reparations. However, when asked if he would support a bill on reparations Psaki said, "We'll see what happens through the legislative process.”
Asked if Biden supports an executive order on the study of reparations, Psaki said at the time, "it would be up to him, he has executive order authority, he would certainly support a study, and we'll see where Congress moves on that issue."
A source familiar with White House proceedings told ABC News that Biden’s support of H.R. 40 has not changed, however he feels that “we don't need a study to continue to advance racial equity.”
In this April 13, 2021, file photo, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including House Majority Whip James Clyburn, Sen. Raphael Warnock, R...
Pete Marovich, Pool/Getty Images
Dreisen Heath, a researcher and advocate in Human Rights Watch's United States Program focusing on racial justice issues, said that the push for an executive order for H.R. 40 is a necessity. She said if a “commission Bill cannot advance through both chambers, then that's why you have other branches of government, who have also promised to execute on a study for reparations and developing reparations proposals, to commit to executive action and do it.”
Heath added other bills have dealt with the legacy of enslavement with majority support from Republicans, including Anti-lynching legislation that stalled for over a century.
“If Juneteenth is a consensus, then reparations also has to be a consensus. And if the congressional chambers aren't going to commit to doing something that they all publicly said that they were going to do, then the President has to do what he also publicly promised that he was going to do," Heath said.
For many fighting for reparations, Tiffany Crutcher is seen as an example of the cumulative impacts that enslaved people have overcome.
In this June 19, 2020, file photo, Dr. Tiffany Crutcher is seen on stage with family members during events to mark Juneteenth, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Lawrence Bryant/Reuters, FILE
The Oklahoma native said she believes race is a factor in why reparations has happened in the centuries since it was first proposed. “I think that people believe and repair and reparations when it comes to everybody, but Black people.”
To her reparations is about more than just cash payments. “We're talking about decades and centuries of harm. That caused my mother to recently pass away of COVID-19 because of the continued harm. We're talking about decades of harm that caused my brother to take his last breath alone.”
She added, “laws that are in place that allow the brutality of Black people in this country is so much more than money."
H.R. 40’s lead sponsor Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told ABC News, “We can't allow a question of slavery and its impact on the descendants of enslaved Africans today, African Americans to go unanswered. Because we believe the momentum is there, because President Biden is a President that understands equity and is committed to and who has recognized the importance of African Americans in this nation this is a diverse nation, but he recognizes the importance of not only African Americans, but our history.”
Jackson Lee told ABC News one of the things that she hopes will happen if H.R. 40 gets signed by Biden is the retelling of human stories.
“There are many human stories about the impact of slavery, because there are descendants who can clearly document their life and their history to the slaves who were enslaved over 200 years," Jackson Lee said.
In this March 1, 2022, file photo, President Joe Biden embraces Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee after Biden delivered the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol's House Chamber in Washington, D.C.
Win McNamee/Getty Images, FILE
University of Connecticut professor Thomas Craemer has studied the topic of race and reparations for over 15 years. Craemer published study in 2015 estimating that the costs of slavery and loss of wealth through slavery cost a conservative estimate of $14.5 trillion through 2009, which didn’t account for inflation. His study also didn’t account for colonial slavery or the loss of wealth due to discrimination after slavery.
Craemer told ABC News when H.R. 40 was introduced, it was a progressive idea, however he says with the amount of research into the impacts of slavery, “setting up a commission to study is not enough. The goal should actually include actual reparations payouts, as a stark starting amount rather than only studying it because they could be a delay tactic. Investment.”
He said reparations “is not a past injustice but a injustice, and it has to do with loss inheritances, and taken inheritances, rights as given. We ignore it when it comes to African American inheritances, and this is a present day wrong that needs to be right.”
“The time is urgent more than ever before,” Crutcher told ABC News on the 108th birthday of Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Mother Viola Fletcher. She notes the last three remaining survivors of the Massacre have waited a lifetime for restorative justice.
Crutcher said for Mother Leslie Randall, 107, and Uncle Hughes Van Ellis, 101, “there's no greater time. How much longer will they have to wait for justice?”
#lawmaker call for Biden to sign an executive order to study reparations#Reparations#Freedmen#Black Freedmen#Biden
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The president signed the order ahead of a trip to Monterey Park, California, where 11 people were killed in January at a gathering for Lunar New Year celebrations.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order Tuesday designed to increase background checks in a visit to a Los Angeles suburb that was the site of a mass shooting this year.
Biden issued the order shortly before a trip to Monterey Park, where 11 people were killed in January at a gathering for Lunar New Year celebrations.
The executive order directs Attorney General Merrick Garland to clarify the statutory definition of who is "engaged in the business" of selling firearms, an authority the administration official said was detailed in sweeping bipartisan gun legislation Biden signed into law last year after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
"This news would mean fewer guns will be sold without background checks, and therefore fewer guns will end up in the hands of felons and domestic abusers," the official said on a call with reporters previewing the order.
The National Instant Background Check System carried out more than 31 million background checks on people looking to own firearms or explosives last year, FBI data shows.
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Climate Corps - The New New Deal
Climate Corps will create a new workforce for green jobs, in a New Deal-style arrangement set up by President Biden.
On Wednesday, the White House announced the Climate Corps, a new jobs training program. It will employ more than 20,000 young adult in parks and state and federal land, building trails, installing solar power systems, planting trees, and other work to help conserve wild spaces and…
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#alexandria ocasio-cortez#climate change#climate corps#ed markey#executive order#green jobs#president biden#white house
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Joe Biden's executive order does very little to protect abortion access, and he refuses to take actions that are within the President's power to ensure safe abortion access in states where it is banned, such as expanding the Supreme Court or funding abortion services on federal land. Instead, he's merely calling on people to vote harder in the November elections.
The Democrats are not willing to make any risky moves, and are instead intentionally drawing out the issue so they can get more votes and donations. Frankly, it's disgusting.
#us politics#roe vs wade#roe vs. wade#roe versus wade#roe v wade#roe#reproductive justice#joe biden#democrats#biden#executive order#anti electorialism#reproductive rights#abortion#abortion access
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Biden signs executive order to support travel for abortions
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Excerpt from this story from USA Today:
President Joe Biden marked Earth Day in Seattle on Friday by announcing new steps to make the nation’s forests more resilient against the threat of wildfires and climate change.
Using a city park with 300 acres of forest land as his backdrop, Biden signed an executive order that seeks to protect some of the nation’s largest and more mature trees, strengthen reforestation efforts and fight global deforestation.
The order Biden signed Friday calls for the government to undertake the first-ever inventory of mature and old-growth forests on federal land.
Scientists say mature and old-growth forests remove carbon pollution from the atmosphere, yet many older forests are threatened by wildfires and climate change.
Data from the inventory, which must be completed within a year, will be used to analyze threats facing American forests. The inventory will serve as the foundation for new policies on management and conservation strategies.
Biden has set a goal of conserving at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. The order he signed Friday will require federal agencies to set targets for reforestation and prepare reports on how the government can stop global deforestation.
A major driver of global deforestation is forest clearing to produce agricultural commodities like beef, soy, and palm oil. Biden's order tasks the State Department with looking for ways the government can reduce or eliminate purchases of agricultural commodities grown on illegally or recently deforested lands.
That will not only protect forests and human rights abroad, the Biden administration argues, but also will provide a level playing field for responsible agricultural producers at home.
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