Policy expert Maya Rockeymoore Cummings on Tuesday said she thinks Democrats will try to work with President Trump on two key issues if they take back the House — Health care and America’s infrastructure.
Cummings, who is the President and CEO of Global Policy Solutions, emphasized that prescription drug prices remain the dominant health care issue among Democrats, which could attract some bipartisan support, including from the president himself.
“I think that we’re going to see them try to make moves on making sure that Medicare, for example, can be leveraged to actually drive down drug prices, I think that there are other things they might do, even in connection or in conjunction with the president, interesting enough, around down the prices of drugs,” Cummings told Hill.TV co-hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton.
The policy consultant cites that Trump has been making some “interesting noise” about going after the pharmaceutical industry.
President Trump made drug prices one of his key campaign issues during the 2016 campaign, accusing drug companies like Pfizer of “getting away with murder.” Trump also initially supported an idea that has long been embraced by Democrats — using the buying power of Medicare to directly negotiate lower prices for senior citizens.
Trump has also made repeated promises to stand up to pharmaceutical companies.
Trump unveiled his long-awaited plan to lower drug prices in May. However, the proposal mostly spares big pharma, and instead focuses on private competition and more transparency when it comes to drug pricing.
Cummings says that another campaign promise that Democrats could help Trump make good on is the president’s plan to overhaul America’s infrastructure. Trump pledged some $1 trillion on infrastructure while campaigning for president.
Even though Trump’s legislative framework for a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s infrastructure is now all but dead in Congress, Cummings argued the issue is still “fertile ground” for Democrats.
“We’re turning into a third world country when it comes to our infrastructure, and so Democrats absolutely see the possibility of partnering with President Trump on infrastructure if it’s not one of those infrastructure approaches that looks towards privatization being the solution.”
Democrats need to pick up 23 seats in order to take back control of the House.
– Tess Bonn
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