Video transcript
but prescription drugs, which has been very, very painful for a lot of Americans. 80% of medications are created in America, and then we end up paying more for those medications. Foreign countries do not pay as much as we do. You said that is over. Can you explain why this is such a big deal? Well, for many years, we were taken advantage of by other countries and the drug companies, but I blame the other countries in a way more, the European Union, etc. They were very nasty and very tough to the drug companies, and they would give them a very low price for drug costs in the European nations. And when that price was given, that was it. They wouldn't negotiate. They said, "Let America pay for the difference." And this happened all over the world with other countries, and we had stupid people leading us, especially over the last four years. And they wouldn't do anything about it. And it turned out that we were paying, and sometimes you saw it ten times more for the same drug. Same drug, same company, same plant where they make it, laboratory. And it got to a point where I said, "We're not going to do this anymore." The pharmaceutical industry is very powerful, and probably the most powerful, considered the most powerful lobby. And the Democrats were making it impossible to lower drug prices. They knew what they were doing, and I instituted a most favored nation's provision or concept where we're going to pay whatever the lowest country pays in the world. So if it's the UK, which pays very low, and any country, it could be any country, whatever the lowest price is, and the drug companies have accepted it, everybody accepts it. But the Democrats never wanted to play ball. They never wanted to do anything. It's the Democrats' fault that people were being ripped off for years and years. And now I hear Democrats saying, "Oh, well, we're going to now go for the bill." It's going to be very hard for them not to approve the big, beautiful bill that we're doing. We're doing the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country because people are going to be getting a 50 to a 90 percent reduction in drug prices, not a half a percent. I remember when I would fight so hard to get a half a point, and I actually had it down a half a point for one year, and I was so proud of myself because that never happened before. It was always going up. Drugs only went in one direction. That's up. And now after studying the industry, it's a very complex industry, but I figured it out, and I said, "It's not going to happen." But the Democrats fought very hard to keep the prices of drugs very, very high. They really ought to blame for this because they should have done something about it. And when the Republicans went with requests, they said, "We're not going to approve it." And now we have a unified Republican Party, but I think the Democrats are going to approve this bill, too, because how are they going to reject a 60, 70, 80 percent drug cut? I don't think they can.
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