The Trump v. Biden meme has been seen more than 4 million times on X alone, and drawn more than 7,000 comments. Shared largely by Dems pushing the narrative that Biden beats Trump in more than just court-upheld election results, the meme posits that going mano-a-mano against the enormous lobbying (and therefore legislative) power of Big Pharma, one man backed down and one man stepped up. Trump is the former.
“The difference between talking and delivering,” Biden says in the pugilistic caption, portraying his former election opponent as the weaker politician. To accompany the portrayal, only one of the photos is flattering.
The difference between talking and delivering. pic.twitter.com/mb6bp65eKV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 31, 2023
Biden isn’t bluffing here, as Trump did promise to challenge Big Pharma on drug costs, a promise that resulted in multiple Executive Orders but not lowered prices.
In 2020, left-leaning think tank American Progress disparaged Trump’s ‘Lowering Drug Prices by Putting America First’ executive order as his “most recent attempt at tricking the public into believing that his administration will make meaningful changes to prescription drug prices.”
In late November 2020, with Trump’s term in office sunsetting, AP reported that “trying to close out major unfinished business, the Trump administration issued regulations Friday that could lower the prices Americans pay for many prescription drugs.”
But it was a price reduction victory that ultimately Biden, not Trump, registered. The Inflation Reduction Act gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices — and the administration just announced the first ten drugs its targeting. The change saves both the government and individuals money.
“Medicare spends $50 billion a year on these 10 drugs, Biden said in his remarks on the change. “And American seniors are spending $3.4 billion on out-of-pocket costs.”
I had a chance to meet Steven this week, an American who – like so many – has overpaid for lifesaving medications for too long.
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 1, 2023
Our lower drug cost law is turning that around. And like I told Steven, we’re not going to give up. pic.twitter.com/SlwKPxQJLu
