Gradually among the many orders that President Donald (the bully) Tromp is issuing, there are a few I can agree with.
KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE I do agree with the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline for environmental reasons as well as transportation costs per mile. Clearly the a pipeline is safer for the environment than either trains or tanker trucks. The applicants to build the Pipeline have altered the path at least once to satisfy critics. Many environmentalists are against the Pipeline because they hope that if the pipeline can't be built, then Canada cannot mine the oil from the sands.
I have mixed feelings about the insistence of Trump to requiring U.S. made steel pipe. If it was something paid for the our government, then I would be all for it; however, it is to be built by private companies and I think requiring them to use a specific steel is dangerous. Thus I am with many Republicans on the steel requirement.
DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE I do not know as much about the Dakota Access Pipeline so I am following a reference.* They say the pipeline traverses only private property where the owners have given them access and does not touch the Standing Rock Souix reservation. It parallels an existing pipeline and high voltage lines. As for polluting water, the Dakota Access Pipeline will be deeper at more than 95 ft than the seven nearby existing pipelines passing under Lake Oahe. As a result of meetings with tribes and others, the Pipeline was shortened by 11 mi. The route also avoids buildings and crosses fewer waterways. Archaeological sites have also been discussed. The water intake for the Tribe is being moved and will be 70 mi. from the pipeline Personally, I don't see any problem.
PRICE OF DRUGS** Previously President Trump had promised to deal with the outrageous price of many prescription drugs.
“We have to get prices down,” the president said in his public introduction. “We have no choice.” He suggested several means toward that end, but veterans of the decades-long battle to lower drug prices say the proposed ideas are unlikely to accomplish anything—at least not without also harming patients.
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The notion that lowering manufacturing costs would reduce drug costs is also misguided, says Mike Kelly, CEO of the Americas at Kantar Health, a pharmaceutical industry consulting company. “The cost of manufacturing a drug is infinitesimal compared to what it gets priced at.”
The dramatic price difference between branded and generic drugs underscores that point, says Love. The manufacturing process is the same, but branded drugs are, on average, 32 times more expensive than generics. “There’s just no relationship between the price of a drug and what it costs to make,” says Love.***
After the public introduction, Trump came out of the meeting with a changed tune:
Then the doors were closed. When they opened again, Trump had not only abandoned his promise to use the government's bargaining power to bring down drug prices, he was now totally against it!
"I'll oppose anything that makes it harder for smaller, younger companies to take the risk of bringing their product to a vibrantly competitive market," he said, according to the pool reporter. "That includes price-fixing by the biggest dog in the market, Medicare, which is what's happening." (Yes, he accused an agency that has no power to negotiate prices of "price-fixing.")
And so it was that after one meeting with pharma CEOs, Trump was turned around on his one good idea and embraced instead yet another nonsensical one. Sigh. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.****
So he is backing off of this one, and Trump being Trump he even had to get in a lie. Atta way Donald! There is something that I can agree with and you don't follow through on your promises.* http://standingrockfactchecker.org/fact-checking-srst-claims-9-7-16/
https://daplpipelinefacts.com/
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2016/08/where-is-teddy-roosevelt-when-we-need.html
*** http://www.newsweek.com/trump-drug-prices-big-pharma-552295
**** http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-trump-drug-costs-20170202-story.html
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