Jared Bernstein Calls For Bipartisan Support To Cut Cost Of Prescription Drugs

Jared Bernstein, member of the Council of Economic Advisers, has called for bipartisan support in Congress for measures to make prescription drugs, one of the biggest costs Americans face, much more affordable.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, he noted that Americans often pay two to three times as much for the same drugs as Europeans, and for years both parties including former President Donald Trump have claimed they are in favor of addressing this issue.

He said Americans’ plight to pay two to three times what people in other countries pay for the very same drugs is “just an unconscionable tax on our seniors.”

Bernstein, who was the chief economist and economic adviser when Biden was Vice President, described the strong state of the U.S. labor market and jobs recovery, while re-emphasizing that bringing down prices is the President’s top priority.

He said that elevated savings from the Rescue Plan and other measures are very much helping to support consumer spending, “the real buffer in this time of elevated inflation.”

Bernstein claimed that the United States currently has the strongest labor market on record in history by many conventional metrics. Nine million jobs were created by the Biden administration so far, according to him.

Pointing to the latest volume of job growth, he said there were 375,000 jobs per month in the past three months.

Bernstein said that although wage growth is pretty strong in nominal terms, inflation is so high.

In this context, the president’s agenda is to help families afford prescription drugs and lower their health insurance premium.

“I’m looking at the Capitol of the window here — something that Congress needs to act on before the August recess, and I’m talking bipartisan,” he added.

Source: Read Full Article