Seize Big Pharma: Nationalize and Internationalize All Medicine!
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2021
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today's episode we discuss the frantic effort by pharmaceutical corporations to keep prescription drug prices -- and their profits -- sky high. As part of the proposed social spending budget, Congress is considering a measure to negotiate hundreds of billions of dollars of savings on prescriptions covered by Medicare. This would fund major expansions to Medicaid and Medicare services, but right-wing Democrats backed by big pharma are doing everything they can to block it.
Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can check out his work at rdwolff.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today we discuss the frantic effort by pharmaceutical corporations to keep prescription drug prices |
| 0:07.3 | and their profits sky high. |
| 0:09.8 | As part of the proposed social spending budget, Congress is considering a measure to negotiate |
| 0:15.5 | hundreds of billions of dollars of savings on prescriptions covered by Medicare. |
| 0:20.9 | This would fund major expansions to Medicaid and Medicare services, but right-wing |
| 0:26.9 | Democrats backed by Big Pharma are doing everything they can to block it. |
| 0:33.3 | We need a new system. |
| 0:35.6 | We need a new society. |
| 0:37.4 | We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is and widening inequality. |
| 1:13.6 | There's no denying it. |
| 1:15.6 | Capitalism is in crisis and capitalism is the crisis. |
| 1:20.6 | We are happy to have again Professor Richard Wolfe. |
| 1:23.6 | He joins us every week in our regular weekly segment where we talk about the biggest |
| 1:28.2 | stories related to the economy, the state of the working class, and the crimes of big business. |
| 1:34.0 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:35.9 | The Socialist Program brings you content three days a week. |
| 1:38.9 | Thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com forward slash the socialist program. |
| 1:45.2 | We appreciate all of your support and encourage you to become a patron today if you enjoy |
| 1:50.4 | listening to this show. |
| 1:52.7 | Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work and the author of many |
| 1:57.2 | books, the latest being the sickness is the system when capitalism fails to save |
| 2:02.9 | us from pandemics or itself. You can check out his work at rd-wulf.com and that's r d-w-o-l-ff.com. |
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