Early, early morning. A time to sleep and avoid sleep, moving from room to room in the house with a phone in hand. As I wipe the sleep from one eye, I arrive upon a non story that should be called out for what it is.
Axios reported a story (and Rolling Stones later followed) in which Trump said the f-word when talking with his Health secretary, Alex Azar, about the administration’s position on vaping. “I should never have done that fucking vaping thing” is the headline. Come on now.
This is precisely the type of treacherous non-story that distracts voters. President Trump curses like most people do (even in business settings). Non-story. Trump, like all politicians, may hide or obfuscate a position on an issue out of fear of losing votes from his base. Non-story. Trump’s been a hack his whole career, why stop after becoming president.
Perhaps the right move politically is to defer to the FDA on the matter. His decision to ban all flavors except nicotine and menthol seems overly broad and infringes liberty. Again, where’s the story here? I’m sitting here in pajamas waiting to be enlightened.
The lazy, piggy backing Rolling Stones article is click bait and a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Sometimes the desire to know the internal dialogue of the executive lead us to be disappointed and distract us from substance.
The real information lie hidden in the original Axios article. In the same conversation, Trump pushed HHS Secretary Azar to draft regulations permitting import of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Introducing foreign competition to the market is interesting, but need more than just Canada and it’s a questionable long term strategy. Canada’s drug prices may just slowly get pulled up over time. It’s ironic that the United States would rely on the Canadian Governments socialist healthcare system to lower drug prices. The US should be building price controls itself not exploit Canada’s.
Time to switch rooms.
The Last Democrat 