Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday grilled President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the US Food and Drug Administration about the president's false claims about the price of prescription drugs in the US. During a Senate confirmation hearing, Sanders (I-Vt.) asked Dr.
Page H2From§Eachthe early evening edition — 28 September 2026
Pharma got its secret deal in weeks. The insulin cap is still waiting for a floor vote.
As it ran on the front
On September 2nd, the President stood in the Oval Office and did the math out loud: Medicare for All, he said, would cost "the entire budget of the whole country." No filing on record supports that number.
On September 20th, the paperwork behind that arrangement became public. Public Citizen filed a records request and got back the deals themselves. The filing does not read like the pitch. It reads like a contract with perks for the sellers: drugmakers may raise prices overseas to offset what they give up here, and the savings promised to American patients are narrower than what was announced.…
…(cont) On September 24th, Senator Sanders asked the President's nominee to run the FDA whether the President's claim about having the cheapest drugs in the world was true. The record carries the question. It does not carry an answer for me to reconcile, and I don't run figures I can't check, so I leave that one exactly where the transcript leaves it: open.
This week the same file gets a new page. CMS put out a Medicare drug-pricing proposal tied to the 2022 pricing law, pitched, like the deals before it, as relief. Lawmakers in both parties read the filing differently. They say the policy could make it harder for patients to get newer cancer treatments, by discouraging the research that makes new treatments in the first place. That is not one party's talking point against the other's. It is both parties reading the same document and landing in the same place.
In the same building, on the same calendar, Senator Shaheen is asking Senate leadership for something smaller than any of this: a floor vote on a bipartisan bill that caps what a private insurance customer pays for insulin. It does not require a secret negotiation with a drug company. It does not require a nominee to answer a question under oath. It requires a vote, and it has been requested before the Senate leaves town for the midterm recess.
Run the filing against the table, hon. The other has been sitting in a drawer, fully written, waiting on a vote nobody will schedule. That is not a coincidence of paperwork. That is what a priority looks like when you can see its receipts.
“They cut a secret deal with the drug companies, let them raise prices everywhere else to cover what they gave up here, and called it relief. Then this week both parties turn around and warn the cancer drug rule might block patients from new treatments — like that's a surprise. Insulin's been sitting there in plain writing for a floor vote nobody wants to call, because that one doesn't need a secret room to work.”
“Look, the deals lower prices here, that's the headline — sure, there's some flexibility built in on what they charge overseas, but that's not a perk, that's how you fund a discount. And the cancer coverage concern, that's not a cut, it's a — okay, it's arguably a barrier to newer treatments, but bipartisan worry just means everybody's being careful, it doesn't mean anybody's wrong. Did I just agree with the warning label? Forget I said that.”
Earlier in this story
- Administration Asks Supreme Court to Uphold a Transgender Ban for the Third Time This Year By Mort · the supper edition, 28 September 2026
- Fuel rule lowers mileage 15.5 mpg, prices the loss at a $1,300 gain no analyst can confirm. By Ruth · the supper edition, 28 September 2026
- State Department weighs handing over Americans' passports, calls it protecting Americans' data. By Lou · the early bird edition, 28 September 2026
- Supreme Court blocks Trump's mail voting plan again, then clears his citizenship check for the same midterms By Lou · the matinee edition, 28 September 2026
- Supreme Court blocks Trump's mail voting plan three times, clears his citizenship tool the same week By Lou · the noon edition, 28 September 2026
The receipts
Click in for more news from The Hill {beacon} Healthcare Healthcare The Big Story Shaheen makes last-minute insulin pitch Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) is pressing Senate leadership to hold a floor vote on bipartisan legislation to cap insulin costs in private insurance before lawmakers leave town until after the midterm election. © Greg…
Lawmakers say the proposed Medicare policy could make it harder for patients to access newer cancer treatments by discouraging medical innovation.
· Secret Trump Drug Deals Reveal Perks for Big Pharma, Uncertainty for Patients from the morgue, 20 Sep 2026
· Trump Lies That Medicare for All Would Cost ‘Entire Budget of the Whole Country’ from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.