American Commitment’s Phil Kerpen on CPAC Live

Featured on this week’s CPAC Live was American Commitment President Phil Kerpen. Hosted by the American Conservative Union’s President Matt Schlapp, the virtual event attracts high-ranking Senators and think tanks to discuss the nation’s pressing political and policy issues.

In case you missed it, we’ve highlighted some of the main points of the 15-minute-long interview that touched on price controls, Medicare for All, and the dangers of an oppressive government, especially when considering health care.

You can view the full interview on ACU’s YouTube channel here.

Here Phil explains how a Medicare For All-type system would have allowed for more harm:

Matt Schlapp, American Conservative Union President: “What should we be looking for in the next year? Is it all about the drive towards Medicare-for-All? Which is a terrible concept.”

Phil Kerpen, American Commitment President: “…We’re seeing that, you know, the pandemic means we need to have a socialized government-run healthcare system. That’s sort of been a push…Every major error that we’ve made in the United States has been the error of big government. You sort of look at the countries that had their worst meltdowns with this pandemic, and they all have socialized government-run healthcare. Countries like Belgium, France, Italy, Spain where they had just catastrophic outcomes. It was all sort of government-run…”

Phil explains how price controls on the pharmaceutical industry would cripple our ability to quickly find a cure and vaccine:

Matt S, ACU: “You can see it specifically on all of the drug remedies for the coronavirus. I think we know that many of the vaccines and such will also come out of the private sector, which is why when the government is strangling with price controls, or overly dictates how we manufacture scientific innovation, we have a disaster.”

Phil K, AC: “Here’s the real problem we have with pharmaceuticals, with drug pricing: most of the rest of the world has some sort of government-set pricing [and] we have this very unfair situation where we basically carry the weight of paying for the R&D and it cost billions of dollars to develop a new drug. That needs to be a key priority in our trade negotiations. But if we just throw up our hands and say ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ and we adopt price controls too like Nancy Pelosi wants to, like the House voted to, well, then, there’s nobody carrying that burden. Then, it doesn’t happen. Then the research and development doesn’t happen. You don’t get new cures.”