What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Zanza]

The government is not allowed to negotiate the prices of something it procures? That sounds like a surefire way to waste tax money. What is the reasoning behind that ban?

[Admiral Yi]

There's nothing in economic theory to predict what the natural price of a negotiated monopoly price is.  I'm curious how it would go.

[grumbler]

The government is not allowed to negotiate the prices of something it procures? That sounds like a surefire way to waste tax money. What is the reasoning behind that ban?

Market mumble mumble

Why do you think health care is so expensive in the US? Market forces don't work, and the patent system doesn't work properly.

[Zanza]

There's nothing in economic theory to predict what the natural price of a negotiated monopoly price is.  I'm curious how it would go.

In case of competition the supplier with the lowest marginal cost will undercut the other bidders. In case of a monopoly supplier for e.g. a patent protected pharmaceutical product, both sides will have to agree on a fair value or not do business at all.
How does the US government handle other cases where it is the monopoly customer, e.g. military hardware or government related services?

[Admiral Yi]

How does the US government handle other cases where it is the monopoly customer, e.g. military hardware or government related services?

I believe on a cost plus (profit) basis.

[Syt]

Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary:

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/16/politics/tom-price-bill-aiding-company/index.html

First on CNN: Trump's cabinet pick invested in company, then introduced a bill to help it

Washington (CNN)Rep. Tom Price last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, raising new ethics concerns for President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.

Price bought between $1,001 to $15,000 worth of shares last March in Zimmer Biomet, according to House records reviewed by CNN.

Less than a week after the transaction, the Georgia Republican congressman introduced the HIP Act, legislation that would have delayed until 2018 a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulation that industry analysts warned would significantly hurt Zimmer Biomet financially once fully implemented.

Zimmer Biomet, one of the world's leading manufacturers of knee and hip implants, was one of two companies that would been hit the hardest by the new CMS regulation that directly impacts the payments for such procedures, according to press reports and congressional sources.

After Price offered his bill to provide Zimmer Biomet and other companies relief from the CMS regulation, the company's political action committee donated to the congressman's reelection campaign, records show.

If confirmed, Price will be a key player in Trump's efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump last week said a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare will be submitted "as soon as" Price is confirmed. He will appear before the Senate health committee this week, but must also appear before the Senate Finance Committee.

The new revelation is the latest example of Price trading stock in a health care firm at the same time as pursuing legislation that could impact a company's share price. The issue has become a major liability for the congressman after The Wall Street Journal reported last month that he traded roughly $300,000 in shares over the past four years in health companies while pursuing legislation that could impact them.

The purchase of the Zimmer Biomet shares is the latest such example, raising new concerns among ethics experts that Price may have inappropriately used inside information while purchasing shares in a company. Concerns over insider trading on Capitol Hill -- where members of Congress allegedly traded stock based on intelligence gleaned from the legislative process -- prompted the enactment of the STOCK Act in 2012 aimed at combating the practice.

"It clearly has the appearance of using your influence as a congressman to your financial benefit," Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group, said of Price's transaction. "If he believed in the bill, he should not have purchased the stock."

Phil Blando, a Price spokesman, did not respond directly to questions about the HHS nominee's purchase of Zimmer Biomet shares, instead pointing to a broader review of Price's holdings completed by the US Office of Government Ethics last week.

"Dr. Price takes his obligation to uphold the public trust very seriously," Blando said. "The Office of Government Ethics has completed an exhaustive review of Dr. Price's financial holdings and just as Dr. Price was compliant with congressional disclosure rules, Dr. Price will comply fully with the recommendations put forward by the ethics office."

A spokesperson for Zimmer Biomet did not respond to an inquiry seeking comment.

To avoid the appearance of conflicts-of-interest, Price announced last week that he would divest from 43 companies -- including Zimmer Biomet -- within 90 days of Senate confirmation. He said he will "not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter" on an issue that could affect any of those companies if he has not yet fully divested from them.

But as a congressman, Price did not appear to adhere to such strict limits, including with Zimmer Biomet. As one of the prominent GOP voices on health care, Price sat on an influential Ways and Means subcommittee that directly oversees health care policy.

And over the last year-and-a-half, Price raised objections to the CMS regulation that proposed major changes to how providers and manufacturers are paid and reimbursed for hip and knee implants through Medicare.

But medical device manufacturers, in particular, were poised to be hit the hardest by the new regulation, according to industry officials and congressional sources. And that posed a significant threat to Zimmer Biomet, which bills itself as a worldwide leader in hip and knee replacements. A report from trade publication Fierce Biotech last year said that the company's hip and knee implants account for 60 percent of its revenue.

In September 2015, Price spearheaded a letter to Andy Slavitt, the acting administrator of CMS, asking that the regulation be delayed because it "represents a significant change to our healthcare delivery system which could have a negative impact on patient choice, access and quality."

Two days after the letter, Zimmer Biomet's PAC cut Price's reelection committee a check worth $1,000, according to campaign finance filings.

When CMS didn't listen to Price, the congressman unveiled his legislation to delay implementing the regulation until 2018, with the bill coming days after investing in the company, whose shares were worth $103.59 at the time.

Three months after he introduced the bill, the company's PAC cut Price's campaign committee another $1,000 check, according to records.

Noble, the ethics law expert, said that Price's motivations may have been pure, but the timing of the stock purchase raises eyebrows.

"When you join the government, you are held to a higher standard," Noble said. "And you are supposed to work for the public and not for yourself."

Drain the swamp!

[Eddie Teach]

Hmm...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/amid-labor-shortage-south-dakota-dairies-look-puerto-rico-n707521

You know, if Trump actually manages to crack down on immigration from Mexico and Central America, that will just cause an even greater influx of economic refugees from Puerto Rico to pick up the slack.

There's a finite supply of Ricans and they're already allowed to come here whenever they want.

[MadImmortalMan]

There's nothing in economic theory to predict what the natural price of a negotiated monopoly price is.  I'm curious how it would go.

In case of competition the supplier with the lowest marginal cost will undercut the other bidders. In case of a monopoly supplier for e.g. a patent protected pharmaceutical product, both sides will have to agree on a fair value or not do business at all.
How does the US government handle other cases where it is the monopoly customer, e.g. military hardware or government related services?

Gov't procurement reps meet with potential suppliers, all of whom have talked to each other beforehand. Each one will take the rep golfing. Reps decide what price ranges should be based on this feedback (it's inflated, duh). In the case of services, feds decide also number of employees, wage rates, expense percentages for health care, benefits, profits, training and wages. Purchase contracts will usually also contain mandated numbers for things like shipping expenses, misc.overhead, transaction fees, etc. All inflated according to what the vendors said their costs were.


Vendors make official bids, and often make presentations. Like with powerpoint, in a conference room. That they all have to fly to. All the bids will be nearly identical because the federal reps gave all the vendors the same guidelines.

The vendors for specific things are grouped into professional organizations that meet every year to compare notes and divvy up the plunder. Also plan a fuckton of lobbying.

That's how federal procurement works.

[Valmy]

The US did NOT go into Syria, because (IMO) the Vietnam syndrome from Iraq...and the result has been another fucking disaster.

We did not go into Syria because there was no outcome that would be good for us. And if we had been there it would still be a fucking disaster, just one with many more dead Americans. It would be a different disaster though.

Like somehow if Saddam Hussein were just left in power everything would be fine. No it would still be a catastrophe, just a different kind of disaster. And we would be blamed for it for not overthrowing the evil Saddam when we had our chance.

Anybody who thinks sending troops to the Middle East will help anything is an idiot. The problem is that a critical mass of people in the Middle East want to wreck shit, and there is just nothing that can be done by an outside force until that situation changes.

Just like the peace process between Palestine and Israel. So long as a critical mass of people don't want peace, there will be no peace.

Now I am not saying that the situation over there is hopeless and there is no role for the rest of the world to play, just that the Middle Easterners have to take the lead here. Whose lead exactly were we to follow in Syria?

[dps]

The government is not allowed to negotiate the prices of something it procures? That sounds like a surefire way to waste tax money. What is the reasoning behind that ban?

The government is not allowed to negotiate the prices of something it procures? That sounds like a surefire way to waste tax money. What is the reasoning behind that ban?

Short answer, the government doesn't "procure" the drugs.  Patients buy the drugs, and the government pays part of the cost.

[frunk]

Like somehow if Saddam Hussein were just left in power everything would be fine. No it would still be a catastrophe, just a different kind of disaster. And we would be blamed for it for not overthrowing the evil Saddam when we had our chance.

The difference being we wouldn't of spent a couple trillion for not much.  Which is why I was fine with the intervention in Libya.  It only cost a few billion, it got rid of the asshole in charge, and gave them a chance at a better government.  Whether they get that better government was up to them (and unfortunately other outside actors mucking things up), but it was low risk potentially high reward.  Iraq was high risk no reward.

[grumbler]

Short answer, the government doesn't "procure" the drugs.  Patients buy the drugs, and the government pays part of the cost.

Yes, BUT private insurers do have the power to negotiate the prices they will pay suppliers for drugs.  The gov't just cuts the "retail" price by a percentage, as far as I can tell. 

[Berkut]

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/16/cat-fight-on-the-alt-right-neo-nazi-podcaster-mike-enoch-quits-after-doxxers-reveal-his-wife-is-jewish/

Our resident Trumpenvolk must be terribly disappointed.

[mongers]

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/16/cat-fight-on-the-alt-right-neo-nazi-podcaster-mike-enoch-quits-after-doxxers-reveal-his-wife-is-jewish/

Our resident Trumpenvolk must be terribly disappointed.

Is Trump planning on bringing back the 1950s country club set?

[crazy canuck]

The government is not allowed to negotiate the prices of something it procures? That sounds like a surefire way to waste tax money. What is the reasoning behind that ban?

The government is not allowed to negotiate the prices of something it procures? That sounds like a surefire way to waste tax money. What is the reasoning behind that ban?

Short answer, the government doesn't "procure" the drugs.  Patients buy the drugs, and the government pays part of the cost.

Our government seems to be able to do it.  I am sure the US could easily do it if the political will existed.