Bill Cassidy, who y’all may remember voted to convict President Trump AND voted for Democrat gun control AND supported Biden’s “infrastructure” bill AND recently came out against Louisiana supporting Texas in the border fight, AND is a driving force behind the disastrous so-called “bipartisan” border bill (he said “don’t be ignorant! read the bill!” when everyone who read it told him what was in it) … That Bill Cassidy also just got whooped at RedState for his being on the opposite side of issues from his constituents on yet another issue.
By one of his constituents, no less, Joe Cunningham, who wrote:
For at least five years, Cassidy has been trying to severely rein in the 340B drug discount program, which as previously noted here now benefits a ton of rural, working-class people in red states—like, well, Louisiana. Some defenders of that program would say Cassidy’s efforts have been so drastic that “kill the program” is a better description of what he is trying to do than even just “rein in.”
Cassidy’s opposition to the program goes back a ways. A bill he introduced in 2018 would have banned new enrollments by hospitals in 340B for two years, flat out. His press release about it literally says, “The bill would prohibit new enrollments in the 340B program for at least two years…”
In July 2023, Cassidy wrote an anti-340B op-ed that complained that the program “costs pharmaceutical companies billions.” Let’s set aside the tone-deafness of complaining about Big Pharma poverty at a time when most conservatives’ eyes were popping out about the huge profits Big Pharma had made in the wake of things like vaccine mandates, new anti-obesity drugs coming online, and more.
It appears that Cassidy’s source for his information was an op-ed written by a former Big Pharma employee who previously worked for Merck and a company bought by Pfizer, among others. That individual then worked for the Community Oncology Alliance, which is heavily funded by Big Pharma and I’m sure totally coincidentally opposes the 340B drug discount program.
That may sound weedy but this part caught my eye.
As always in Washington, DC, it’s worth having a look at financial interests. Fun fact: While Cassidy may have a bevy of non-financial reasons to be lining up with Big Pharma on 340B, throughout the 2018-2024 period, he also has had a bevy of financial ones to do so also.
A review of various financial disclosure documents evidence Cassidy’s wife having held between $1,000 and $15,000 in Novartis stock (and multiple transactions involving Novartis stock) between the bottom of 2018 and early 2019.
She also held Amgen stock—she sold between $1,000 and $15,000 of it in December 2018, and another $1,000-$15,000 in November 2020.
Well well well well. Go figure. “Optics matter a lot in politics, and the optics of Cassidy being one of the most aggressive critics of 340B given the demographics of his state, the GOP base here, and where his family has put its money are not good,” said Cunningham.
So here’s my point and my question.
What is Sen. Bill Cassidy doing? What are his voters doing? This cabal of McConnellites (or McConnell Lites?) seem like expired milk in the party now. Trump is the nominee. Abbott is taking on Biden. DeSantis defeated Disney. This is the fight back GOP now. You gotta ask when guys like Cassidy are going to catch up.
Or cash out and let someone else take the wheel.