Voters Agree: Expand Social Security and Medicare, Take on Big Pharma
Stay Updated, LIKE Social Security WorksIt's clear what the American people want and that's expanded Social Security and Medicare and lower drug prices!
Posted by Social Security Works on Thursday, March 29, 2018
Transcript:
I’m Jasmine Jefferson, Legislative Director of Social Security Works. Today we’re going to talk about new data that shows what the American people are really looking for from political leaders.
Republican politicians, including Donald Trump, want to make huge cuts to Social Security and Medicare. But voters of all political stripes want exactly the opposite.
Sixty-six percent of voters are more likely to back candidates who support expanding Social Security. That includes fifty-six percent of Trump voters and seventy-eight percent of Clinton voters.
Sixty-four percent of voters are more likely to back candidates who support expanding Medicare. That includes nearly half of Trump voters and eighty-four percent of Clinton voters.
There’s only one issue that unites Americans even more than expanding Social Security and Medicare – taking on big pharma’s greed and lowering drug prices. In recent years, pharma CEOs have tripled the price of life saving medications like insulin. They are causing millions of Americans to suffer and die just to line their own pockets.
The people are ready to fight back. Eighty-four percent of voters are more likely to back candidates who supporting taking federal action to lower prescription drug prices. That includes seventy-one percent of Trump voters and 95 percent of Clinton voters. That’s right, nearly three quarters of Trump voters.
Trump himself ran on taking on big pharma. But as soon as he got into office, he betrayed that promise just like his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare. He put Alex Azar, a former pharma CEO who is accused of engaging in illegal collusion to triple the price of insulin, in charge of “regulating” pharma.
Democratic candidates can win if they focus on Trump’s broken promises, and draw a strong contract by running on protecting and expanding Social Security and Medicare while taking on big pharma.
Conor Lamb, who was just elected to Congress as a Democrat in a district Trump won by nearly twenty points, shows the way.
Lamb: “We found that there was public support for programs like Social Security and Medicare that’s nearly universal, because these programs are universal. They are America’s way of saying we are all in this together.”
