Trump Nominates Former Big Pharma Executive to Be Next Health Secretary – LGBT People, Minorities Should Be Concerned
Fox Guarding the Henhouse Again
President Donald Trump has just nominated Alex Azar to be his next Secretary of Health and Human Services, to replace Tom Price, whom resigned in disgrace. As usual, instead of holding a press event to introduce his nominee to the public and laud his accomplishments, Trump posted a tweet.
Happy to announce, I am nominating Alex Azar to be the next HHS Secretary. He will be a star for better healthcare and lower drug prices!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2017
There is no reason to believe Azar will help to “lower drug prices.”
LGBT people, minorities, women, and anyone who benefits from ObamaCare and the protections the Affordable Care Act has delivered to Americans should be greatly concerned.
Azar until recently was the president of Lilly USA, the American affiliate of Eli Lilly, an international pharmaceutical giant. That alone should be disqualifying, but in Trumpland it’s considered a plus. Over half of Trump’s nominees come from industries they supposedly are regulating as public servants in the Trump administration.Â
But there’s a good deal more for Americans to worry about with Azar.
A donor to Trump, he fully supports the complete repeal of ObamaCare. Before becoming the president of a Big Pharma behemoth, Azar worked in the George W. Bush administration as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, but he also served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the most far right wing justices to ever serve on the nation’s highest court.Â
Azar is also a member of the far right wing Federalist Society, which advocates for the false belief that the Constitution is not a living document designed to be interpreted, but rather that its words are to mean only and exactly what they did at the time they were written. Scalia, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, are also members.
During the Clinton years Azar helped prosecute the failed Whitewater case against the Clintons, which no doubt has only endeared him to Trump.
“The swamp only gets worse,” liberal think tank and advocacy group Public Citizen wrote last month on news Azar was under consideration. “Tom Price supported Big Pharma in the U.S. Congress. Now apparently Trump has decided to cut out the middleman, and let a pharmaceutical executive literally run the health department.”
To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.
If you find NCRM valuable, would you please consider making a donation to support our independent journalism?
Â
Â
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.