It's been an interesting week in many
regards. Here in my Chestertown bubble, I had my first week of classes for the
spring semester. Out in the rest of the world we have had Presidential State of
the Union addresses, more chaos and political limbo in Yemen, and apparently
some deflated footballs (not exactly sure what's going on there...).
But one of my favorite people in
Washington had a great week that was full of promise for progress.
Senator Elizabeth Warren started the week
with a statement to respond to the State of the Union address. Warren used this
opportunity to highlight every moment that the President shared his goals to
increase equality and the policies he wanted to pursue in order to make this
progress. Foreshadowing her activity to come in the upcoming week, she brought
up tools like affordable education, Wall Street Reform, and investing in
medical and scientific research. She praised Obama for expressing his goals to
give families a level playing field and work to rebuild America’s great middle
class.
The very next day, Warren voiced concerns
about the SCOTUS hearing arguments regarding Texas Department of Housing and
Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project. She pointed out
that a decision limiting the scope of the housing laws would undermine basic
ethics of racial equality. Then she moves on to point out that this case could
also reduce economic opportunities for working families and put the country at
risk of another financial crisis.
Later in the week she spoke, as
passionately and eloquently as she always does, about the American system of
medical innovation and health at the Families USA Health Action Conference. She
blamed her own Congress for limiting the use of NIH funding but she pointed her
angriest finger at the pharmaceutical companies. Finally, she spoke about her
plan for legislation that would increase funding for NIH but punishing and
fining blockbuster drug companies when they break the law. She claims that
these companies are capitalizing on NIH research while cheating the system in
attempts to make profits. Her explanation for her proposed bill—the Medical
Innovation Act—is that Congress should “make it easier for the biggest drug
companies to help develop the next generation of cures and harder for them to
profit from breaking the law.”
I know I’m not the first (or 10000th)
person to say this, but can we PLEASE have Warren 2016?!!
