Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Democrats Chant Name Of House's Drug Costs Bill After Trump's Vow To Act On High Pricing At State Of Union
President Trump鈥檚 brief remarks on drug pricing during Tuesday鈥檚 State of the Union address appeared uncontroversial: Congress, he said, should pass a bipartisan drug pricing bill. Democrats, however, came armed with a surprisingly strong response: From the back of the House chamber, dozens of lawmakers stood, held up three fingers, and unleashed a three-syllable chant: 鈥淗.R. 3.鈥 The agitators included Democratic Reps. Donna Shalala (Fla.), Annie Kuster (N.H.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.), Dan Kildee (Mich.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), and Cheri Bustos (Ill.), the chair of House Democrats鈥 campaign arm. (Facher and Florko, 2/4)
Pelosi spent months in talks with Trump to try to get him to support the bill. During the 2016 campaign, Trump famously broke with his party and said he supported letting the government negotiate drug prices. But the White House distanced itself from Pelosi鈥檚 bill and eventually came out against the legislation. Trump said Pelosi's bill would impose 鈥減rice controls鈥 and indicated he would veto it. (Weixel, 2/4)
Democrats in the chamber chided the president when he called on Congress to pass drug pricing legislation, standing up and yelling out the number of a House-passed bill to do just that as Trump tried to continue on over them. (Oprysko, 2/4)
Democrats chanted "H.R.3," a reference to a bill introduced by the late Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) on prescription drug prices, after President Trump's health-care remarks at his Feb. 4 State of the Union speech. (2/4)
Democrats criticized President Trump on Tuesday for seeking to repeal a landmark health care law and presiding over an economy they argue has left working people struggling, in a pair of official responses to his State of the Union address that also issued a searing indictment of his conduct and language. ... 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty simple,鈥 Ms. Whitmer said, describing her work on health care as a Michigan state senator. 鈥淒emocrats are trying to make your health care better. Republicans in Washington are trying to take it away.鈥 鈥淏ullying people on Twitter doesn鈥檛 fix bridges 鈥 it burns them,鈥 Ms. Whitmer added later. 鈥淥ur energy should be used to solve problems.鈥 (Cochrane, 2/4)
Not to be outdone, the normally restrained Pelosi put on a show herself as Trump鈥檚 speech wrapped. Standing behind the president, she meticulously ripped up page after page of the speech, while Trump and other Republicans cheered the end of an address that mostly catered to hard-core GOP partisans. 鈥淚t was the courteous thing to do considering the alternative,鈥 Pelosi told reporters as she exited the chamber. Later as she left the Capitol, she added, 鈥淚t was a manifesto of mistruths.鈥 (Caygle, Ferris and Everett, 2/5)
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday called for President Trump to withdraw his administration鈥檚 legal position calling for striking down the Affordable Care Act, seeking to pre-empt the president鈥檚 health care message in the State of the Union address.聽Speaking at a press conference with House and Senate Democrats, Schumer noted that Trump is likely to tout his administration鈥檚 actions on health care in his speech Tuesday night.聽But he and Pelosi argued that the most consequential administration health care action is the GOP lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act that the Trump administration is supporting.聽(Sullivan, 2/4)