A few years ago, when Democrats were grappling with skyrocketing inflation, Donald Trump equated his plan to fight price hikes by American companies to communism.
Now that it’s the Republican Party in the potency hot seat, members of the Trump Cabinet — and GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill — are doing the same, joining CEOs and demanding new regulations and antitrust lawsuits.
“They’re making money hand over fist,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said of insurance companies at Thursday’s Ways and Means Committee hearing. Later, he agreed with House Budget Chairman Jody Arrington (R-Texas) that the Federal Trade Commission needs to bring some antitrust lawsuits against health industry firms.
Facing a rising cost of living that jeopardizes his chances of maintaining a majority in Congress in November, Republican members of Congress and Trump officials repeatedly scapegoated his longtime allies in the industry while testifying before their committees on Thursday. It was another sign of how much and how Trump’s populist politics has transformed the party of business. Very deep surveys show Republicans are on the economy right now.
Jason Smith, Missouri Republican who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, said, “Consolidation of the industry with big companies swallowing up different parts of the health care system has helped maintain the bottom line of big corporations, while doing little to support the health or well-being of working-class Americans.” Smith condemned “major health insurance empires” and hospital CEOs who “raised prices without expanding access to care.”
Smith is bringing in leaders from health systems to testify before his panel later this month.
At a House Appropriations hearing, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins blamed anti-competitive practices in the industry for contributing to a “widespread economic pending disaster” for farmers that has been caused by rising fertilizer and fuel prices caused by the Iran war.
Despite acknowledging the war’s contribution to global economic turmoil, Rollins blamed fertilizer companies for high prices, saying that a small group of companies had “basically cornered the market” for agricultural supplies in a way that prevented competition.
Iowa GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson dispatched her price transparency law As a way forward.
Other Republicans on Smith’s panel criticized the pharmaceutical and food industries, as well as the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, for the dire state of health of Americans and high health care prices.
GOP Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania praised Kennedy’s pressure campaign to remove artificial colors from food companies, saying the colors cause cancer, and asked what could be done to regulate the food industry.
Kennedy asked them to close a loophole that for decades has allowed food manufacturers to introduce new ingredients into their products without federal oversight — the so-called generally recognized as safe standard at the Food and Drug Administration. Food companies say ending it would only make food more expensive and stifle innovation.
Food manufacturers, however, received little sympathy.
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), a urologist, said he recently treated a 262-pound 8-year-old boy. He attributed this to “the terrible tragedy that has befallen the American food industry” and said that it is sad that weight loss drugs are some of the top selling drugs in the country.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, acknowledged concerns about higher gas prices due to the war with Iran.
Wright repeatedly sought to compare the current price increases to larger gas price increases that occurred during the Biden administration, while also framing the current prices as an unfortunate cost of a worthy goal of disarming Iran.
“This conflict with Iran, by ending it, is removing the greatest global threat to future energy supply,” Wright told lawmakers.
Wright said the Trump administration is taking “every practical step” to lower gasoline prices. But Republicans on the committee also sought to blame blue-state and “far-left” policies for rising housing costs – a sentiment echoed by the right.
“You want to know where gasoline is expensive, where electricity is expensive, look at the blue states,” Wright said.
The industry has not been able to escape the scrutiny of the administration due to the increase in gas prices. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said during a White House press briefing on Wednesday that he was keeping an eye on the kind of price increases that Democrats once condemned.
“We will keep an eye on gas stations because when crude oil prices went up they raised prices very quickly. We hope they bring them down as quickly as crude oil prices came down,” he said.
