How President Biden’s FTC threatens America’s free market
Limited government intervention, free markets, and individual liberties are the ideals America was founded on, and our legislators should work to preserve them. Unfortunately, recent legislation in Washington threatens to allow the government to oversee how our private businesses and Tennesseans can function.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has made headlines in recent months because of its typical, misguided overreach into various American private sectors. This overreach has pushed the only Republican commissioner, Christine Wilson, to “resign in the face of continuing lawlessness.”
When asked about FTC Chair Lina Khan’s performance, Wilson explained that she and her staff “have spent countless hours seeking to uncover her (Khan’s) abuses of government power. That task has become increasingly difficult as she has consolidated power within the Office of the Chairman, breaking decades of bipartisan precedent and undermining the commission structure that Congress wrote into law.”
Now, lawmakers in DC want to give this agency more power, but this time in our prescription drug market. S. 127, the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act will allow Khan’s FTC to dictate who the winners and losers are in the drug supply chain. Unfortunately, the bill fails to address the actual driver of high drug prices, but targets only one specific entity proven to save Americans money – Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMS), which save an average of $1,040 per person per year in prescription drug costs.
A lack of competition, driven by Big Pharma’s tactics to extend monopolies over drugs, allows these companies to keep prices high and increase them. PBMS encourage competition in the
marketplace and help employers and patients secure yearly savings.
Competition is always the correct answer regarding the economy, not misguided government intervention, especially by an agency already scrutinized. As a member of the TNGOP State Executive Committee, this overreach flies in the face of our conservative values. I know firsthand how critical a limited government and free market that welcome competition is to our economy and our businesses that employ so many Tennesseans.
The FTC under Lina Khan’s rule is a precarious place
Now without a commissioner of the opposite party acting as a much-needed check and balance for the FTC, this
agency has free rein to dismantle our free market.
Right-of-center organizations have raised concerns over this specific bill giving the FTC more oversight power. The American Action Forum conveyed, “Giving the FTC vague new authorities is an invitation to have them stretched to the point of abuse.” The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) said, “[The FTC is] throwing out well-established consumer welfare precedent, ignoring gains in economic analysis, and attacking companies in the interest of their competitors, not for the benefit of consumers. If successful, all of this will result in more government red tape, higher compliance costs, and increased uncertainty for American industries and the citizens who depend on them for jobs, products and services.”
Conservative healthcare experts share similar reservations. Ike Brannon, a fellow at the Jack Kemp Foundation, wrote, “One such misguided idea is a bill the Senate Commerce Committee will consider this week that would give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to limit the ability of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMS) to negotiate lower drug prices from drug companies. If passed, it would increase drug costs and worsen health outcomes for many people who take prescription drugs.”
Tennessee small businesses, patients, and families call on our federal Congressional delegation to oppose heavy-handed government regulation in our free market and encourage competition.
Lee Mills is a TNGOP District 32 Committeeman.