| Unleash Prosperity Hotline Issue #371 09/16/2021 |
| 1) New Census Report Confirms Amazing Economic Gains By Minorities Under Trump The annual Census Bureau report on income and poverty in America – the gold standard of economic data – was released yesterday and it highlighted how swiftly minorities climbed up the economic ladder under Trump. From 2016- 2019 real median household income for all Americans leaped by almost 10% to $69,560 In 2020 – the pandemic year – incomes fell by 3% — a much smaller decline than was expected. The media is arguing this was because of massive government stimulus spending, but we believe the bigger factor was the wise decision by Trump to only very briefly locked down the economy. The 2nd best year ever for income and low poverty was 2020. The best year was 2019.  Spreadsheet is from: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2021/demo/income-poverty/p60-273.html Spreadsheet link: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/p60/273/tableD1.xlsx The new numbers for 2020 show a rise in poverty and loss of income for all races last year, but even with the economic jolt from the virus, incomes were higher, and poverty rates lower for ALL races than in any year on record EXCEPT 2019. For the most part, minorities made more economic progress in the first three years under Trump than in eight years under Obama. That’s an impressive record for a “racist” president. |
| 2) Pelosi’s Prescription Drug Price Controls Fail In Committee Cheerful news yesterday from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where Nancy Pelosi’s $700 billion raid on Medicare via prescription drug price controls failed when committee Democrats Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), and Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) voted with Republicans. Could it be Democrats waking up to the dangers of ads coming at them in September and October of 2022 about their joining with Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a $700 billion raid on Medicare? Nah. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/572447-democrats-suffer-blow-on-drug-pricing-as-3-moderates-buck-party Perhaps they were influenced by a new University of Chicago paper that found “HR3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, would lead to a 29 to 60 percent reduction in R&D from 2021 to 2039 which translates into 167 to 342 fewer new drug approvals during that period.” https://ecchc.economics.uchicago.edu/2021/09/14/issue-brief-the-evidence-base-on-the-impact-of-price-controls-on-medical-innovation/ Or maybe they saw the lunacy of enacting price controls on a pharmaceutical industry that saved millions of lives worldwide thanks to amazing innovation and Operation Warp Speed, which delivered a new wonder drug in a little over a year. Of course, no bad idea ever dies in Washington, so we’re sure Pelosi will contrive to revive this one. But for now, this is an enormous policy victory and a big setback to the whole Bernie-Biden Build Back Broke effort, which is in danger of losing one of its biggest pay-fors. |
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