May 17, 2025 • 19 mins
🛫 FAA Technology Crisis
- Issue: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is using outdated technology, so obsolete that replacement parts are being sourced from platforms like eBay.
- Response: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in an interview, emphasized the urgency of overhauling the system, citing safety concerns and operational failures at Newark Airport.
- Plan: A new fiber-driven system is being developed in Philadelphia to support Newark’s air traffic control.
💊 Prescription Drug Pricing Reform
- Policy Announcement: President Trump introduced a "Most Favored Nation" pricing model to ensure Americans pay the lowest global prices for prescription drugs.
- Examples:
- A breast cancer drug costing $16,000 in the U.S. is significantly cheaper in Australia and Sweden.
- An asthma drug priced at $500 in the U.S. costs under $40 in the U.K.
- Executive Action: The order directs federal agencies to enforce fair pricing and bypass middlemen by allowing direct purchases from manufacturers.
- Criticism of Opponents: The commentary accuses the Biden administration of reversing Trump-era reforms and being influenced by pharmaceutical lobbyists.
⚖️ Judicial Power and Nationwide Injunctions
- Legal Debate: The file discusses a Supreme Court case concerning whether district court judges should have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions.
- Amicus Brief: Filed by West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey and the ACLJ, arguing that such injunctions undermine judicial integrity and bypass proper legal processes.
- Concerns:
- Forum shopping for ideologically aligned judges.
- Undermining public confidence in the judiciary.
- Circumventing the class action process (Rule 23).
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
If you take a look at the pharmaceutical and drug cuts,
they're so massive that I think a lot of Democrats
have to vote for the bill number one, number two,
even if I didn't do this today, even if there
was no such thing as he's you know, fifty to
ninety percent cuts.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I mean, think of it.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Will we're buying You're selling drugs in other countries for
five times more than.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
A cost in the United States. How horrible that is anyway,
but that's going to.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Be a thing of the bet.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
Speaker 5 (00:31):
Good Saturday morning to you.
Speaker 6 (00:32):
Ben Ferguson with you, and these are some of the
stories that you may have missed that we talked about
this week on the forty seven Morning Update. First up,
in a shocking report, we're finding out just how bad
things are at the FAA, including the fact that the
equipment is so antiquated that they're having to buy replacement
parts on eBay, Donald Trump pledging he's going to fix
(00:56):
and overhaul the entire system. Up next, a massive deal
on prescription drug prices. And finally, I will be joined
by a good friend of mine, my former roommate who's
now the West Virginia Attorney General, who is standing up
to make sure that these activist judges in these district
courts are not actually making rulings that would take away
(01:18):
the power of the presidency. It's the forty seven Morning Update,
and it starts right now.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Story number one.
Speaker 6 (01:24):
In a shocking revelation, we now have found out that
the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, is relying on such
outdated technology that the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, has disclosed
that the agency is forced to purchase replacement parts on
platforms like eBay due to how obsolete their current systems are.
(01:48):
The administration is now promising that there will be a
massive overhaul the system, but it could take years to accomplish.
Sean Duffy doing a sit down interview with CBS this
morning explaining just how bad the system is and why
Donald Trump has told him it's time to overhaul it
(02:09):
as fast as we can.
Speaker 7 (02:11):
Our main mission is safety, and so if there's any
concern with safety, we slow down traffic and there might
be delayed there might be cancelations, and we take those
precautions to make sure that you get from your departure
city to your arrival city.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
But it's gonna take a little bit of time.
Speaker 7 (02:27):
Now, the main line that feeds information into Newark that
went down, the secondary line didn't stand up, and so
both lines are now working. We have a little bit
of issues with our air traffic controllers. Some of them
have stepped out of the tower they were stressed. So
we're training new individuals in the Philly Traycon which services Newark,
and we're building a whole new fiber driven system down
(02:51):
in Philly that does serve that Traycon or the Nework airport.
So it doesn't weren't a situation where you know, it's
gonna take us a little bit of time. I hope
by this summer we're going to be fully functioning.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (03:02):
I was going to say, mister Duffie, what does that
mean when you say a little bit of time you
say by the summer, because I'm thinking the problem with
Newark is when you hear the screens went down and
no one seemed to be able to explain that. You
don't think we have to worry about that happening again.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You think they've corrected that.
Speaker 7 (03:16):
Problem well in Newark, both lines are working and so
you know, listen, yes, and if both lines do go down,
there are emergency procedures, backup procedures that we take to
talk to airplanes to make sure they stay separated.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
But Gail, I'm concerned.
Speaker 7 (03:29):
I mean this system that we use many much of
the equipment you have to buy an ebait. No one
makes it anymore. That's how old the system is that
we fly on today, which is why yesterday I called
for a brand new infrastructure plan to rebuild everything across
the spectrum for air traffic control. It is well overdue
in America, and I think what you've seen in Newark
(03:51):
is you're having failings. And when you have the failings,
you take a look at the whole system and could
other parts, you know, have issues.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Of course it could have issues.
Speaker 7 (03:59):
But that's why it's all the action to do this
for America so you always feel safe in your flying gale.
Speaker 6 (04:03):
Thank goodness to Trump administration is willing to take on
a problem that every other administration just wanted.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
To kick the can down the road.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
And we'll finally be able to know that we have
a system that's reliable and safe and parts are no
longer being bought on eBay. Next story number two, Major
victory number one for the American people is going to
have a massive impact on so many Americans that deal
with high costs of prescription drugs.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Here is what you need to.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
Know about what the President has done to lower the
price of prescription drugs for all Americans. The announcement and
the action put forth saying American patients will be first
instead of the pharmaceutical companies by Donald Trump will have
an impact for every American. Now, this should not be
a conservative or liberal, or Republican or democratic issue, yet
(04:57):
Democrats are angry about it. So let me tell tell
you exactly how this is going to have an impact
on you. First up, the President said that we are
now going to have most favored nation prescription drug pricing,
saying we are going to pay the lowest price that
there is in the world.
Speaker 5 (05:15):
Here's the President in his own words.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
But it's called most favored nation. We are going to
pay the lowest price there is in the world. We
will get whoever is paying the lowest price. That's the
price that we're going to get. So remember that. So
we're no longer paying ten times more than another country.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Whoever is paying the lowest price.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We will look at that price and we will say
that's the price we're going to pay.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Most favored nations. That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
One breast cancer drug costs Americans over sixteen thousand dollars
per bottle, but the same drug from the same factory,
manufactured by the same company is one sixth that price
in Australia and one tenth that price in Sweden.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
One tent for the identical product.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
A common as ma drug costs almost five hundred dollars
here in America, but costs less than forty dollars in
the United Kingdom. So forty dollars in the United Kingdom,
which is where this gentleman told me he paid a
small amount for his shot. But think of that, So
forty dollars versus five hundred dollars.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
Here, forty compared to five hundred dollars. The difference between
the UK and the US. Now, let me explain more
about this order. The order directs the US Trade Representative
and the Secretary of Commerce to take action to ensure
foreign countries are not engaged in practices that purposefully and
unfairly undercut market prices and drive price hikes in the
(06:40):
United States. All what I'm giving you right now is
coming directly from the White House. I want to make
that very clear. Number Two, the order instructs the Administration
to communicate price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to establish that America,
the largest purchaser and funder of prescription drugs in the world,
gets the best price. The Secretary of Health and Human
(07:02):
Services is going to establish a mechanism through which American
patients can buy their drugs directly from manufacturers who sell
to Americans at a quote most favored nation price, bypassing
the middlemen, and finally for the White House. If drug
manufacturers fail to offer most Favored nation pricing, the order
(07:24):
directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to one
propose rules and impose most favored nation pricing, and two
take other aggressive measures to significantly reduce the cost of
prescription drugs the American consumer, and most importantly, in anti
competitive practices. Why because the White House says it's about
(07:45):
getting a better deal for Americans and President Trump once
again taking action to keep pharmaceutical manufacturers from charging Americans
high drug prices while giving steep discounts to other wealthy
nations that is something that doctor Oz talked about the
White House with the President by his side, and here
is what he said.
Speaker 9 (08:05):
That means that we are paying in America four times
more than that drug costs in other countries. Again, one
hundred percents the baseline. It's two hundred and eighty nine
percent above that baseline. It goes all the way down
to where we're paying fifty percent more than any other country.
That's the range, as was pointed out by President Trump,
half the time, we're paying three times more than it's
paid in other countries. It doesn't make any sense for
(08:26):
the system that stated President Trump is over and over
again indicated, and Secretary Kennedy has reflected as well.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
We want innovation.
Speaker 9 (08:33):
We want our technology partners doing the best they can
to make the best solutions for drugs to cure as
many people in America and around the world as possible.
By getting our allies to pay a bit more as
they should be and they should have for many years
been doing, will course correct a problem that's gotten out
of hand. And by doing that in a thoughtful, effective way,
we're going to be able to get the pharmaceutical industry hole.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Those jobs will still be here. Will still be productive.
Speaker 9 (08:56):
We'll still be curing cancer and a slew of other
ailments that plague humanity.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
America will still be the leader in this space.
Speaker 9 (09:02):
But we're paying the appropriate amount, the right sized amount,
for those tasks.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Now you may ask yourself this question, why is the
president doing this?
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Well, it's all in the numbers.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
The United States has less than five percent of the
world's population, yet funds roughly seventy five percent of global
pharmaceutical profits.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Here's the other thing you may not know.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Drug manufacturers discount their products to gain access to foreign markets,
and then subsidize those discounts through high prices charged in America.
In essence, you are subsidizing drug manufacturer profits and foreign
health systems are getting the big deal, despite drug manufacturers
benefiting from generous research subsidies and enormous healthcare spending by
(09:50):
the US government. Now on his first term, you may
not know this, but President Trump took historic action to
keep Medicare and seniors from paying more for drugs than
economically comparable countries, which the Biden administration rescinded before it
could even take effect. Why because they're owned by big pharma.
(10:10):
Instead of fixing this problem. The Biden administration's greatest achievement
was to negotiate prices that were on average seventy eight
percent higher than an eleven comparable countries as part of
Biden's efforts to quote beat medicare. In translation, the Democratic
Party sold you out, the Americans who are suffering and
(10:34):
desperately need pharmaceutical drugs, and they sold you out to
the highest bidder, the lobbyists and the companies that came
in and said this is what we need. The President
making it clear this is never going to happen again
in the US and as long as he is present,
he is going to fight for innovation, fight for technology,
(10:54):
and make sure that you are paying less than any
other major nation in the world.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Finally, story number three.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Former roommate you don't get to say this every day,
is also the Attorney General from West Virginia. We were
together actually on Capitol Hill. I'm staring at the Supreme
Court right now, and he was in the Supreme Court
today for this important, this major case on judges power.
And I want to go to you, JB on this
(11:22):
so that you can explain how all this started. In essence,
you had judges that were making decisions that were covering
the entire country. And the argument is, maybe that's not
how it's supposed to be on these local levels or
these these smaller court battles, And this is what this
is all about.
Speaker 10 (11:41):
Yeah, I think you what you just said there makes
a lot of sense. This is a national issue that
was the soul that was decided or attempted to be
decided by a district court judge. And so what happens,
and this has been happening a lot, especially very recently
within the last thirty years, and it's a bipartisan problem then,
is that district court judges are adjoining presidential decrees right
(12:05):
and saying what the president has done is not just
illegal in my courtroom, but it's illegal in the entire country.
And our process is set up differently than that. Our
district court judges are supposed to hear cases that are
in front of them and make decisions for the plaintiffs
that are in front of them. Here, several interest groups
in several states sued in a I'm going to just
(12:28):
say a friendly jurisdiction, which is how this works, as
you find a judge that is ideologically aligned with you,
and you get them to enjoin an entire action that
happened in this case in New Jersey, and so a
New Jersey judge then decided, for all other of the
six hundred district court judges and all of the circuit judges,
and ostensibly for the Supreme Court whether or not a
(12:49):
presidential order was constitutional. While we did not get into
the underlying facts of this case today, ben what the
Supreme Court was hearing, and what our brief described was
the reasons why this is both unconstitutional and a bad idea. So,
for one, both the history of our courts as you
look back into the courts of Chancery in England, as
(13:11):
well as Article three, which was written to delineate the
powers of our courts, indicate that circuit judges do not
have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions. Further, our brief
gets into the idea that there is a remedy here,
and the remedy is is that if you're looking to
have a district court make a decision for a large
(13:32):
number of people, you have to go through what's called
a Rule twenty three and create a class action, so
then the court knows who the plaintiffs are, that they're
trying to address a problem for and fourth, and maybe
most importantly is that district courts and our federal court systems,
they are life tenured for a reason, and that is
to eliminate the stench of politics from the benches around
(13:58):
the country. And when you do forum shopping and you
start to use these universal injunctions in these sort of
weaponized ways, what you then will find, I believe and
our brief delineates that the confidence that the public has
in the independence of our judiciary will go down very quickly.
And that is the single most important branch for the
(14:19):
public to have confidence in, because it is their orders
and it is their writings that tell every American how
the Constitution is being interpreted as it relates to the
laws that apply to them. So this is a really
big case. We feel really really good about our briefing.
The people in West Virginia joined with a group called
the American Center for Law and Justice in this briefing,
(14:42):
and we're very hopeful that the Court will use our
amicus to guide them into what I believe is a
proper decision, and that is the district courts lack the
ability to adjoin the entire country as it relates to
presidential executive orders.
Speaker 6 (14:56):
So let's talk about the amicus brief and break that down.
The goal of an amicus brief and people that are listening.
My guest with me is the Attorney General from West Virginia, JB. McCuskey.
I want a dear friend of mine, former roommate, and were,
as I stare at literally at the Supreme Court right now,
you just left the Supreme Court where you guys filed
this amicus brief with the ACLJ. What is the goal
(15:19):
of an amicus brief for people that maybe don't understand
that terminology, maybe they've ever heard it before, And specifically,
what did you guys put in that amicus brief that
you're hoping that the justices will get from it and
read from it on this case.
Speaker 10 (15:33):
Yeah, So an amicus brief is in layman's term, it's
called a friend of the court brief. And so what
its purpose is is to help the justices as they're
making their decision with parties who have an interest in
the outcome. And in West Virginia, the interest in this
outcome comes from this widespread weaponized use of nationwide injunctions
we just saw within the last week a nation a
(15:55):
wide injunction out of the state of Washington that will
stop President Trump's executive orders on the use of coal
and lowering electricity rates for Americans and putting West Virginia
coal miners back to work today in order to meet
our nation's energy needs. And so for us, these nationwide injunctions,
when you're a small rural state, are never going to
be the forum that gets shopped into right. They're never
(16:17):
going to ask real patriotic Americans like they are in
West Virginia to answer these questions. They're going to go
to places where it's a little different. And so we
have a huge interest in ensuring that the process plays
out in nationwide injunctions to make sure that these the
president's executive orders as they relate to the economy and
the people of West Virginia are upheld and if they
(16:38):
are found to be unconstitutional, that they go through the
proper channels. And that is what our brief says. Our
brief says that it isn't that the plaintiffs don't have
any options. Our brief says the options that they chose
are not available to the court that made them. So
they needed to have gone through what's called a rule
twenty three, as I just said, and explain to the
(16:58):
court why they have a class of plaintiffs that have
a similar need for this same kind of relief, and
then the court can order that those people get that relief.
And then if another district court or another circuit court
comes to a contrary conclusion, then the Supreme Court can
use that. The Supreme Court's power generally comes from when
(17:20):
they are deciding between circuits that have a different interpretation
of the law. And in this instance, they circumvented that
entire process by getting one single district court judge to
speak for the entire country. And that is not allowed
under Article three. And it's a really bad idea in
terms of public confidence and the independence of our judicial branch.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
Is it fair to say that the mechanism that's being
used by the left to go and find these friendly
judges and friendly courts to do this, is this a
version of lawfare where you say, we don't respect the people,
we don't respect their vote, we don't respect who they
chose as their leader, which this time happens to be
President Donald J. Trump, And so therefore we are going
(18:03):
to use lawfair to stop the will of the people
and what they voted for, and what their leaders that
they voted for, who won in a free and fair
election are trying to do well.
Speaker 10 (18:13):
I hesitate to use the word lawfare here, Ben, because
we do the same thing occasionally when there's Democrats in
the White House. And it's not that we have a
problem with challenging federal government edicts. Right, We as Republicans
are are constantly finding ways that the federal government is
overstepping its bounds, and we use the courts in order
to rain them in, like in West Virginia versus EPA.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Right.
Speaker 10 (18:35):
So it isn't that this is It isn't lawfare as
you describe it, because we need the option to be
able to do this too. It is the kind of lawfare,
right it is. It is this this novel concept that
you use a single friendly district court to do what
is supposed to be the job of the entire judiciary.
Speaker 9 (18:54):
Right.
Speaker 10 (18:55):
There's a reason why our system has set up the
way that it is. And I personally believe, as in
the originalists, that the factual scenarios surrounding the reason why
somebody's asking for something shouldn't change the fundamental role and
the rules that surround our court, and that was really
in essence, the main part of this argument is should
(19:19):
we break the rules because this is important and my
personal opinion is is that is not true. We should
maintain the constitutionally granted powers that exist in our district
courts and allow the system as it was created by
our founders to work, because it does.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here on Monday morning
If you take a look at the pharmaceutical and drug cuts,
they're so massive that I think a lot of Democrats
have to vote for the bill number one, number two,
even if I didn't do this today, even if there
was no such thing as he's you know, fifty to
ninety percent cuts.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I mean, think of it.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Will we're buying You're selling drugs in other countries for
five times more than.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
A cost in the United States. How horrible that is anyway,
but that's going to.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Be a thing of the bet.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
Speaker 5 (00:31):
Good Saturday morning to you.
Speaker 6 (00:32):
Ben Ferguson with you, and these are some of the
stories that you may have missed that we talked about
this week on the forty seven Morning Update. First up,
in a shocking report, we're finding out just how bad
things are at the FAA, including the fact that the
equipment is so antiquated that they're having to buy replacement
parts on eBay, Donald Trump pledging he's going to fix
(00:56):
and overhaul the entire system. Up next, a massive deal
on prescription drug prices. And finally, I will be joined
by a good friend of mine, my former roommate who's
now the West Virginia Attorney General, who is standing up
to make sure that these activist judges in these district
courts are not actually making rulings that would take away
(01:18):
the power of the presidency. It's the forty seven Morning Update,
and it starts right now.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Story number one.
Speaker 6 (01:24):
In a shocking revelation, we now have found out that
the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, is relying on such
outdated technology that the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, has disclosed
that the agency is forced to purchase replacement parts on
platforms like eBay due to how obsolete their current systems are.
(01:48):
The administration is now promising that there will be a
massive overhaul the system, but it could take years to accomplish.
Sean Duffy doing a sit down interview with CBS this
morning explaining just how bad the system is and why
Donald Trump has told him it's time to overhaul it
(02:09):
as fast as we can.
Speaker 7 (02:11):
Our main mission is safety, and so if there's any
concern with safety, we slow down traffic and there might
be delayed there might be cancelations, and we take those
precautions to make sure that you get from your departure
city to your arrival city.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
But it's gonna take a little bit of time.
Speaker 7 (02:27):
Now, the main line that feeds information into Newark that
went down, the secondary line didn't stand up, and so
both lines are now working. We have a little bit
of issues with our air traffic controllers. Some of them
have stepped out of the tower they were stressed. So
we're training new individuals in the Philly Traycon which services Newark,
and we're building a whole new fiber driven system down
(02:51):
in Philly that does serve that Traycon or the Nework airport.
So it doesn't weren't a situation where you know, it's
gonna take us a little bit of time. I hope
by this summer we're going to be fully functioning.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (03:02):
I was going to say, mister Duffie, what does that
mean when you say a little bit of time you
say by the summer, because I'm thinking the problem with
Newark is when you hear the screens went down and
no one seemed to be able to explain that. You
don't think we have to worry about that happening again.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You think they've corrected that.
Speaker 7 (03:16):
Problem well in Newark, both lines are working and so
you know, listen, yes, and if both lines do go down,
there are emergency procedures, backup procedures that we take to
talk to airplanes to make sure they stay separated.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
But Gail, I'm concerned.
Speaker 7 (03:29):
I mean this system that we use many much of
the equipment you have to buy an ebait. No one
makes it anymore. That's how old the system is that
we fly on today, which is why yesterday I called
for a brand new infrastructure plan to rebuild everything across
the spectrum for air traffic control. It is well overdue
in America, and I think what you've seen in Newark
(03:51):
is you're having failings. And when you have the failings,
you take a look at the whole system and could
other parts, you know, have issues.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Of course it could have issues.
Speaker 7 (03:59):
But that's why it's all the action to do this
for America so you always feel safe in your flying gale.
Speaker 6 (04:03):
Thank goodness to Trump administration is willing to take on
a problem that every other administration just wanted.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
To kick the can down the road.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
And we'll finally be able to know that we have
a system that's reliable and safe and parts are no
longer being bought on eBay. Next story number two, Major
victory number one for the American people is going to
have a massive impact on so many Americans that deal
with high costs of prescription drugs.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Here is what you need to.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
Know about what the President has done to lower the
price of prescription drugs for all Americans. The announcement and
the action put forth saying American patients will be first
instead of the pharmaceutical companies by Donald Trump will have
an impact for every American. Now, this should not be
a conservative or liberal, or Republican or democratic issue, yet
(04:57):
Democrats are angry about it. So let me tell tell
you exactly how this is going to have an impact
on you. First up, the President said that we are
now going to have most favored nation prescription drug pricing,
saying we are going to pay the lowest price that
there is in the world.
Speaker 5 (05:15):
Here's the President in his own words.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
But it's called most favored nation. We are going to
pay the lowest price there is in the world. We
will get whoever is paying the lowest price. That's the
price that we're going to get. So remember that. So
we're no longer paying ten times more than another country.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Whoever is paying the lowest price.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We will look at that price and we will say
that's the price we're going to pay.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Most favored nations. That's what it is.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
One breast cancer drug costs Americans over sixteen thousand dollars
per bottle, but the same drug from the same factory,
manufactured by the same company is one sixth that price
in Australia and one tenth that price in Sweden.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
One tent for the identical product.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
A common as ma drug costs almost five hundred dollars
here in America, but costs less than forty dollars in
the United Kingdom. So forty dollars in the United Kingdom,
which is where this gentleman told me he paid a
small amount for his shot. But think of that, So
forty dollars versus five hundred dollars.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
Here, forty compared to five hundred dollars. The difference between
the UK and the US. Now, let me explain more
about this order. The order directs the US Trade Representative
and the Secretary of Commerce to take action to ensure
foreign countries are not engaged in practices that purposefully and
unfairly undercut market prices and drive price hikes in the
(06:40):
United States. All what I'm giving you right now is
coming directly from the White House. I want to make
that very clear. Number Two, the order instructs the Administration
to communicate price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to establish that America,
the largest purchaser and funder of prescription drugs in the world,
gets the best price. The Secretary of Health and Human
(07:02):
Services is going to establish a mechanism through which American
patients can buy their drugs directly from manufacturers who sell
to Americans at a quote most favored nation price, bypassing
the middlemen, and finally for the White House. If drug
manufacturers fail to offer most Favored nation pricing, the order
(07:24):
directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to one
propose rules and impose most favored nation pricing, and two
take other aggressive measures to significantly reduce the cost of
prescription drugs the American consumer, and most importantly, in anti
competitive practices. Why because the White House says it's about
(07:45):
getting a better deal for Americans and President Trump once
again taking action to keep pharmaceutical manufacturers from charging Americans
high drug prices while giving steep discounts to other wealthy
nations that is something that doctor Oz talked about the
White House with the President by his side, and here
is what he said.
Speaker 9 (08:05):
That means that we are paying in America four times
more than that drug costs in other countries. Again, one
hundred percents the baseline. It's two hundred and eighty nine
percent above that baseline. It goes all the way down
to where we're paying fifty percent more than any other country.
That's the range, as was pointed out by President Trump,
half the time, we're paying three times more than it's
paid in other countries. It doesn't make any sense for
(08:26):
the system that stated President Trump is over and over
again indicated, and Secretary Kennedy has reflected as well.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
We want innovation.
Speaker 9 (08:33):
We want our technology partners doing the best they can
to make the best solutions for drugs to cure as
many people in America and around the world as possible.
By getting our allies to pay a bit more as
they should be and they should have for many years
been doing, will course correct a problem that's gotten out
of hand. And by doing that in a thoughtful, effective way,
we're going to be able to get the pharmaceutical industry hole.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Those jobs will still be here. Will still be productive.
Speaker 9 (08:56):
We'll still be curing cancer and a slew of other
ailments that plague humanity.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
America will still be the leader in this space.
Speaker 9 (09:02):
But we're paying the appropriate amount, the right sized amount,
for those tasks.
Speaker 6 (09:07):
Now you may ask yourself this question, why is the
president doing this?
Speaker 5 (09:11):
Well, it's all in the numbers.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
The United States has less than five percent of the
world's population, yet funds roughly seventy five percent of global
pharmaceutical profits.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Here's the other thing you may not know.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Drug manufacturers discount their products to gain access to foreign markets,
and then subsidize those discounts through high prices charged in America.
In essence, you are subsidizing drug manufacturer profits and foreign
health systems are getting the big deal, despite drug manufacturers
benefiting from generous research subsidies and enormous healthcare spending by
(09:50):
the US government. Now on his first term, you may
not know this, but President Trump took historic action to
keep Medicare and seniors from paying more for drugs than
economically comparable countries, which the Biden administration rescinded before it
could even take effect. Why because they're owned by big pharma.
(10:10):
Instead of fixing this problem. The Biden administration's greatest achievement
was to negotiate prices that were on average seventy eight
percent higher than an eleven comparable countries as part of
Biden's efforts to quote beat medicare. In translation, the Democratic
Party sold you out, the Americans who are suffering and
(10:34):
desperately need pharmaceutical drugs, and they sold you out to
the highest bidder, the lobbyists and the companies that came
in and said this is what we need. The President
making it clear this is never going to happen again
in the US and as long as he is present,
he is going to fight for innovation, fight for technology,
(10:54):
and make sure that you are paying less than any
other major nation in the world.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Finally, story number three.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Former roommate you don't get to say this every day,
is also the Attorney General from West Virginia. We were
together actually on Capitol Hill. I'm staring at the Supreme
Court right now, and he was in the Supreme Court
today for this important, this major case on judges power.
And I want to go to you, JB on this
(11:22):
so that you can explain how all this started. In essence,
you had judges that were making decisions that were covering
the entire country. And the argument is, maybe that's not
how it's supposed to be on these local levels or
these these smaller court battles, And this is what this
is all about.
Speaker 10 (11:41):
Yeah, I think you what you just said there makes
a lot of sense. This is a national issue that
was the soul that was decided or attempted to be
decided by a district court judge. And so what happens,
and this has been happening a lot, especially very recently
within the last thirty years, and it's a bipartisan problem then,
is that district court judges are adjoining presidential decrees right
(12:05):
and saying what the president has done is not just
illegal in my courtroom, but it's illegal in the entire country.
And our process is set up differently than that. Our
district court judges are supposed to hear cases that are
in front of them and make decisions for the plaintiffs
that are in front of them. Here, several interest groups
in several states sued in a I'm going to just
(12:28):
say a friendly jurisdiction, which is how this works, as
you find a judge that is ideologically aligned with you,
and you get them to enjoin an entire action that
happened in this case in New Jersey, and so a
New Jersey judge then decided, for all other of the
six hundred district court judges and all of the circuit judges,
and ostensibly for the Supreme Court whether or not a
(12:49):
presidential order was constitutional. While we did not get into
the underlying facts of this case today, ben what the
Supreme Court was hearing, and what our brief described was
the reasons why this is both unconstitutional and a bad idea. So,
for one, both the history of our courts as you
look back into the courts of Chancery in England, as
(13:11):
well as Article three, which was written to delineate the
powers of our courts, indicate that circuit judges do not
have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions. Further, our brief
gets into the idea that there is a remedy here,
and the remedy is is that if you're looking to
have a district court make a decision for a large
(13:32):
number of people, you have to go through what's called
a Rule twenty three and create a class action, so
then the court knows who the plaintiffs are, that they're
trying to address a problem for and fourth, and maybe
most importantly is that district courts and our federal court systems,
they are life tenured for a reason, and that is
to eliminate the stench of politics from the benches around
(13:58):
the country. And when you do forum shopping and you
start to use these universal injunctions in these sort of
weaponized ways, what you then will find, I believe and
our brief delineates that the confidence that the public has
in the independence of our judiciary will go down very quickly.
And that is the single most important branch for the
(14:19):
public to have confidence in, because it is their orders
and it is their writings that tell every American how
the Constitution is being interpreted as it relates to the
laws that apply to them. So this is a really
big case. We feel really really good about our briefing.
The people in West Virginia joined with a group called
the American Center for Law and Justice in this briefing,
(14:42):
and we're very hopeful that the Court will use our
amicus to guide them into what I believe is a
proper decision, and that is the district courts lack the
ability to adjoin the entire country as it relates to
presidential executive orders.
Speaker 6 (14:56):
So let's talk about the amicus brief and break that down.
The goal of an amicus brief and people that are listening.
My guest with me is the Attorney General from West Virginia, JB. McCuskey.
I want a dear friend of mine, former roommate, and were,
as I stare at literally at the Supreme Court right now,
you just left the Supreme Court where you guys filed
this amicus brief with the ACLJ. What is the goal
(15:19):
of an amicus brief for people that maybe don't understand
that terminology, maybe they've ever heard it before, And specifically,
what did you guys put in that amicus brief that
you're hoping that the justices will get from it and
read from it on this case.
Speaker 10 (15:33):
Yeah, So an amicus brief is in layman's term, it's
called a friend of the court brief. And so what
its purpose is is to help the justices as they're
making their decision with parties who have an interest in
the outcome. And in West Virginia, the interest in this
outcome comes from this widespread weaponized use of nationwide injunctions
we just saw within the last week a nation a
(15:55):
wide injunction out of the state of Washington that will
stop President Trump's executive orders on the use of coal
and lowering electricity rates for Americans and putting West Virginia
coal miners back to work today in order to meet
our nation's energy needs. And so for us, these nationwide injunctions,
when you're a small rural state, are never going to
be the forum that gets shopped into right. They're never
(16:17):
going to ask real patriotic Americans like they are in
West Virginia to answer these questions. They're going to go
to places where it's a little different. And so we
have a huge interest in ensuring that the process plays
out in nationwide injunctions to make sure that these the
president's executive orders as they relate to the economy and
the people of West Virginia are upheld and if they
(16:38):
are found to be unconstitutional, that they go through the
proper channels. And that is what our brief says. Our
brief says that it isn't that the plaintiffs don't have
any options. Our brief says the options that they chose
are not available to the court that made them. So
they needed to have gone through what's called a rule
twenty three, as I just said, and explain to the
(16:58):
court why they have a class of plaintiffs that have
a similar need for this same kind of relief, and
then the court can order that those people get that relief.
And then if another district court or another circuit court
comes to a contrary conclusion, then the Supreme Court can
use that. The Supreme Court's power generally comes from when
(17:20):
they are deciding between circuits that have a different interpretation
of the law. And in this instance, they circumvented that
entire process by getting one single district court judge to
speak for the entire country. And that is not allowed
under Article three. And it's a really bad idea in
terms of public confidence and the independence of our judicial branch.
Speaker 6 (17:40):
Is it fair to say that the mechanism that's being
used by the left to go and find these friendly
judges and friendly courts to do this, is this a
version of lawfare where you say, we don't respect the people,
we don't respect their vote, we don't respect who they
chose as their leader, which this time happens to be
President Donald J. Trump, And so therefore we are going
(18:03):
to use lawfair to stop the will of the people
and what they voted for, and what their leaders that
they voted for, who won in a free and fair
election are trying to do well.
Speaker 10 (18:13):
I hesitate to use the word lawfare here, Ben, because
we do the same thing occasionally when there's Democrats in
the White House. And it's not that we have a
problem with challenging federal government edicts. Right, We as Republicans
are are constantly finding ways that the federal government is
overstepping its bounds, and we use the courts in order
to rain them in, like in West Virginia versus EPA.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Right.
Speaker 10 (18:35):
So it isn't that this is It isn't lawfare as
you describe it, because we need the option to be
able to do this too. It is the kind of lawfare,
right it is. It is this this novel concept that
you use a single friendly district court to do what
is supposed to be the job of the entire judiciary.
Speaker 9 (18:54):
Right.
Speaker 10 (18:55):
There's a reason why our system has set up the
way that it is. And I personally believe, as in
the originalists, that the factual scenarios surrounding the reason why
somebody's asking for something shouldn't change the fundamental role and
the rules that surround our court, and that was really
in essence, the main part of this argument is should
(19:19):
we break the rules because this is important and my
personal opinion is is that is not true. We should
maintain the constitutionally granted powers that exist in our district
courts and allow the system as it was created by
our founders to work, because it does.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here on Monday morning
Host
Ben Ferguson
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