Democrats love to position themselves as economists, but as they are socialists, they get it wrong every time. The “quick fix” approach to a problem rarely results in an actual fix. A great example is Obamacare, posited to reduce the cost of healthcare. Anyone actually believe this? We were also promised to be able to keep our preferred plan AND our doctors. Didn’t happen. In fact, while some people did see lower costs for their insurance, others, like me trying to run a business, saw an order of magnitude increase in the cost of my policy. If you had a regular job with benefits, you were okay. But paying out of pocket cost me as much as $1100/month with a $6800 deductible. And this plan didn’t even qualify for an HSA.
When you evaluate Harris, look to her statements from her presidential campaign, her VP tenure and other past events. She is trying to moderate herself now, but don’t be fooled. She is an extremist and what she said in the past IS her current set of beliefs (or worse.) Here is one example.
Patent Stealing
Harris wants to empower the executive branch to seize pharmaceutical patents to “lower costs.”
“For any drug where they fail to play by our rules, and if that drug came about from federal funding for what’s called ‘R and D,’ research and development, I will snatch their patent so that we will take over,” she said. “Yes, we can do that! The question is, do you have the will to do it?”
“I have the will to do it,” said Harris during her campaign.
This is scary. While most of the funding for research and development is direct costs to the company, some is provided by the government to support additional research into favored diseases, like AIDS. This is the only way the government can influence the direction.
For those who don’t know, it can take years to bring a new drug to market. Even with a patented drug, by the time a company has gotten through the excessively long FDA process, they only have a few years to recoup their costs. This is part of why almost all new drugs are costly. Without the earnings, companies can’t develop the new drugs the public constantly demands. If there is a risk of losing their patent rights, they will have to stop development or limit development in areas that are less profitable (including “zebra” illnesses). They will focus on drugs that affect large populations only.
Keep in mind that as research proceeds, many potential drugs are discarded at various phases because they aren’t effective enough, have too many side effects, require too high doses, etc. But at the time problems are discovered, millions have already been invested.
Pundits React
A variety of people posted to X with the clip where Harris made her views clear. Filmmaker, Eric Abbenante, started off, describing Harris as a “dictator,” a term many people agreed with. “The party frightened about the ‘threat to our democracy’ is nominating a wannabe tyrant,” he wrote. Greg Abbott, Texas Governor, said, “This is crazy.”
There were many similar reactions, including from Emmy-winning actress Patricia Heaton, comic Tim Young, conservative writers like Dan McLaughlin and Guy Benson, and more. Many of the responses featured words like “dictator” or “communism.” One former GOP communications staffer described Harris as “the queen of bad ideas.”
Vote smart. If you know people who favor Harris, let them know about this and the policies she favored, noted in Komrade Kamala. https://denisekalm.substack.com/p/komrad-kamala
And as we know, the government didn’t fund it….we the people did.