<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(107, 107, 107);" class="">WASHINGTON POST<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(107, 107, 107);" class=""><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(25, 85, 165);" class="">The Plum Line</span></b></a><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class=""> </span><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 6pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><b class=""><span style="font-size: 30pt; font-family: 'Bodoni MT', serif; color: rgb(42, 42, 42);" class="">Democratic focus groups may have identified a hidden vulnerability for Trump<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 16.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><a name="PE3BUFRK44I6TEDOTVK3MRI6WQ" class=""></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class="">By <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/greg-sargent/" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: 'Franklin Gothic Medium', sans-serif; color: rgb(25, 85, 165);" class="">Greg Sargent</span></b></a> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;" class=""> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class=""><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/07/democratic-focus-groups-may-have-identified-hidden-vulnerability-trump/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.62175c46f791" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class="">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/07/democratic-focus-groups-may-have-identified-hidden-vulnerability-trump/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.62175c46f791</a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 16.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">February 7 at 9:55 AM<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 16.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 6pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" class=""> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">This is the week that the broad outlines of President Trump’s reelection strategy are coming into focus. Trump will continue pushing forward with his reactionary xenophobic nationalist agenda on immigration, while executing a massive but largely phony pivot back to the pro-worker economic populism he immediately abandoned upon taking office.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">But Democrats and progressives believe they may have found a way to unmask that sham populist pivot. And their developing counterargument involves not one, but two, of the issues on which Trump will build his case for reelection: prescription drugs and trade.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">This counterargument surfaced almost by surprise in a series of focus groups recently conducted in the industrial Midwest by veteran Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, for the trade watchdog group Public Citizen. Greenberg outlined his findings in a memo that was shared with this blog.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Specifically, Greenberg found that working-class white voters who switched from Barack Obama to Trump are deeply angry about soaring prescription drug prices. As a result, they vehemently oppose a key provision benefiting Big Pharma at the core of Trump’s renegotiation of NAFTA — which he touts as proof that he’s delivering for his working-class white base.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">The stakes are high. Trump’s hopes for a political rebound turn partly on trade and prescription drug pricing. In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/05/us/politics/trump-state-of-union-speech-transcript.html" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">his State of the Union speech</span></a>, both received prominent billing. Trump called on Congress to pass his renegotiation of NAFTA, claiming it will revive manufacturing and even naming specific states crucial to Trump’s reelection, like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Meanwhile, Trump also vowed that it would be a “major priority” for him to “lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs.” This, and Trump’s call for major new infrastructure spending, constitutes a pivot back to his 2016 economic populism after having gone all in with GOP plutocracy as president.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">But it turns out that trade and prescription drug pricing are linked — and not in a good way for Trump.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">What Democratic focus groups found<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">In December, Greenberg conducted focus groups among working-class white Obama-Trump voters in Macomb County, Mich., and Oak Creek, Wis., to gauge public attitudes toward Trump’s NAFTA renegotiation, which <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/01/us-canada-mexico-just-reached-sweeping-new-nafta-deal-heres-whats-it/?utm_term=.a693d1baa5ef" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">was completed last fall</span></a>.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">The most striking finding, according to Greenberg’s memo, was that arguments about the Big Pharma provision were “game changing.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Trump’s renegotiated NAFTA does accomplish <a href="http://infographic.replacenafta.org/" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">some things progressives and Democrats support</span></a>, such as mandates for higher wages on auto workers and an end to a dispute resolution mechanism favoring capital. But the rewrite also <a href="https://www.apnews.com/7aa1a218a152482594dcdb420691646b" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">expands patent protections</span></a> for some pharmaceutical drugs to 10 years, shielding them from generic competition.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">That’s why many Democrats are <a href="https://twitter.com/repblumenauer/status/1093238434586607616" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">now vowing not to pass it</span></a> without big changes. As Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) <a href="https://www.apnews.com/7aa1a218a152482594dcdb420691646b" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">put it</span></a>, the new NAFTA is “stuffed with handouts that will let big drug companies lock in the high prices they charge for many drugs,” gouging “seniors and anyone else who needs access to life-saving medicine.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Working-class whites in Greenberg’s focus groups apparently agreed. As his memo notes, these voters “hate” pharmaceutical companies and are deeply convinced that high drug prices are the result of their political influence.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">In effect, Greenberg concluded, this debate links corporate power directly to soaring medical costs, providing a gateway to a larger argument about the ability of big corporations to rig market rules in their favor. These voters, Greenberg noted, “especially distrust the way that corporations bend the system to their will,” with lobbyists and big campaign donations, “so that they can earn more profits while hurting workers and consumers.” As one Macomb man put it: “They are buying their laws, basically.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Greenberg was surprised by the depth of emotion about pharmaceutical companies and drug prices, noting that they “emerged as an extraordinary point of anger.” The result: Pointing to the Big Pharma provision constitutes the “single most powerful argument” against Trump’s NAFTA rewrite.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Why this might matter</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Obviously, this particular argument, by itself, is only one among a multitude against Trump. But this could prove significant nonetheless. If this provision is this unpopular, it provides a weapon for Democrats to force Trump to accept <a href="http://infographic.replacenafta.org/" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">big progressive changes</span></a> to the NAFTA renegotiation. And this is going to be a major battle soon enough.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">This also underscores how politically important — and treacherous — the broader issue of prescription drug prices could prove. Democrats <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/14/18176707/prescription-drug-prices-bills-bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">are pushing forward multiple policies</span></a> to reduce those prices — a goal that has bipartisan support — and one key policy tool is to weaken pharmaceutical patent protections.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">With Trump vowing to prioritize drug prices, the fact that his NAFTA rewrite appears to benefit Big Pharma provides an entry point for a much broader argument against him.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Trump campaigned on the idea that the economy and political system are “rigged” for the rich. But as president, Trump enthusiastically embraced plutocratic GOP economic orthodoxy, with massive corporate tax cuts and a deregulation rampage <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/trump-cfpb-payday-loans-rule-consumer-financial-protection-bureau.html" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">benefiting actors such as predatory lenders</span></a>. Trump, if anything, further rigged the system for the wealthy, and his emphasis on infrastructure, drug pricing and trade is <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/trump-state-of-the-union-was-a-preview-of-2020-campaign-strategy.html" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">an effort to achieve distance from that GOP orthodoxy and revive that 2016 economic populist magic</span></a>.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">But Trump’s actual record gives Democrats a major opening to campaign on a <i class=""><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">progressive </span></i>unrigging of our political economy, with proposals such as <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/31/16021844/antitrust-better-deal" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">revived antitrust</span></a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17683022/elizabeth-warren-accountable-capitalism-corporations" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">corporate governance reform</span></a>, a more progressive tax code — and <a href="http://infographic.replacenafta.org/" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 108, 180);" class="">a more progressive NAFTA rewrite</span></a>, with tougher enforcement of labor standards and no Big Pharma giveaway.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class=""> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 13.5pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">The coming trade and drug pricing debate provides an opening to press that argument. Indeed, while Greenberg found a fair amount of trust in Trump on trade, his memo notes that the “message framework” on NAFTA and drug prices reinforced a creeping “doubt” about Trump among some of these voters that he is “looking out for rich CEOs and business executives like himself.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">In other words, they may be open to the argument that Trump is helping them <i class=""><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">further</span></i> rig the system — and that his vow to take on powerful, entrenched corporate and financial interests turned out to be nothing but a big scam.</span></div><div class="">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; " class=""><div class="">Arthur Stamoulis</div><div class="">Citizens Trade Campaign</div><div class="">(202) 494-8826</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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