Fox News’ John Roberts on Thursday hit Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick with a brutal lesson in “actuality” versus “notion” after Donald Trump repeated his lie about chopping prescription drug costs throughout his primetime tackle.
In a falsehood-filled, shouty speech from the White Home, the president pulled a well-known lie from out of his hat, declaring that drug prices are “400, 500 and even 600%” decrease.
Trump has paraded the implausible claim round in latest months, baffling critics. Again in July, he vowed to power pharmaceutical firms to drop drug costs by as much as 1,500% and “numbers that aren’t even regarded as achievable.”
Roberts identified the apparent about Trump’s “mathematically unimaginable” declare throughout Lutnick’s look on Fox News’ “America Stories.”
“Effectively, in case you reduce one thing by 100%, the price goes all the way down to zero. If you happen to reduce it by 4, 5, or 600%, the drug firms are literally paying you to take their merchandise,” defined the host as Lutnick cracked a smile and chuckled.
“So it raises the query: How a lot of final night time’s speech was hyperbole and the way a lot was truth?”
Lowering the value of a drug by 100% would make it free. Any additional lower in share would imply firms can be paying individuals to take them.
Lutnick tried to placed on his math hat.
“What he’s saying is that if a drug was $100 and also you convey the drug all the way down to $13, proper? If you happen to’re it from $13, it’s down seven occasions!” Lutnick claimed.
“It’s not 600%,” Roberts interjected.
“Effectively, it’s 700% greater worth earlier than, it’s down 700% now, proper?” continued Lutnick as he tried to clarify Trumpspeak.
“So $13 must go up 700% to get again to the previous one. So all of it relies on if you have a look at it. You may say it’s down 87% or you may say it must go up 700% to be the identical one, so it simply relies on if you have a look at it.”
Lutnick marched on, “However principally what he’s saying, and everyone knows what he’s saying, is we’re hammering the value of medicine down…”
