Biden, Harris embrace over drug prices

LARGO, Maryland — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated lowering some prescription drug costs during a raucous event here Thursday afternoon, an attempt to mine the administration’s economic wins for Harris’ campaign even as she tries to define her own image.

Introduced as a “team” and basking in shouts of support as they walked out together, Biden and Harris took care to praise one another in their first joint appearance since Harris replaced Biden on the ticket. They both called reducing Medicare drug costs a shared accomplishment, mirroring the comity of a suddenly unified Democratic coalition.

“I have an incredible partner,” Biden said, stepping to the lectern after Harris spoke. “She’s going to make one hell of a president.”

But the "team" mantra has its risks. Just Wednesday night, Republican nominee Donald Trump reminded his supporters that Harris and Biden are "a team" in a bid to tie Harris to voters' concerns about Biden's handling of the economy.

Drug costs are an example of the kind of kitchen-table issue that will be a central proof point of Harris’ argument that, despite having overseen a period of high inflation, she and Democrats are the ones fighting for the economic interests of working people. Yet Biden’s poor polling on the economy is driving her to separate herself where she can, such as a Friday speech in which she is expected to offer new ideas of her own.

But with less than 100 days left in the campaign, much of Harris’ economic platform will inevitably borrow from Biden’s — not just their consumer-focused populism and “grow the economy not from the top down but from the middle out” messaging, but owning much of the administration’s overall record.

It has been 24 years since a sitting vice president sought the Oval Office. And history is rife with examples of those candidates getting tripped up by the baggage of the president they served. In 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey couldn’t overcome broad public opposition to President Lyndon Johnson’s prosecution of the war in Vietnam. When Vice President Al Gore sought the presidency in 2000, he attempted to run away from the melodrama and character questions hounding President Bill Clinton after he admitted to an affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

Now, thrust into the race in midsummer, Harris will have to thread a needle between taking credit for Biden’s popular legislative accomplishments, like driving down Medicare prescription drug costs, and distancing herself where needed.

Biden on Thursday tried to stress how much he and Harris appreciate the impact of rising drug costs on working families.

“Kamala and I both get it. We know it’s about your dignity,” he said, repeatedly sprinkling his speech with references to her. “It’s about your peace of mind. It’s about taking care of your family. It’s about giving folks just a little more breathing room.”

The thunderous cheers from the capacity crowd jammed into a small community college gymnasium — albeit in a county where Biden won 90 percent of the vote in 2020 — were a reflection of the new energy and enthusiasm around the Democratic ticket. Harris has closed ground on Trump in the polls and generated massive crowds and an organic wave of support that has drawn comparisons to President Barack Obama’s 2008 run and Trump in 2016 — and provided a sharp contrast to the relative lack of enthusiasm around a second Biden term.

Many in the crowd wore “Madam President” and other campaign gear, reflecting how much more meme-able the Democratic ticket has become. One T-shirt read: “President of the United States is a BLACK job.” Spontaneous chants filled the air long before Biden and Harris were in the building. And the press contingent, far larger than the group that had been trailing Biden to his official events across the country, quickly filled up the seats in a small pen surrounding the camera riser, as reporters scrambled to find seats in the bleachers.

But the applause was also a reaction to the substantive achievement being highlighted: the administration having dramatically lowered the cost of 10 popular prescription drugs, which were renegotiated with the pharmaceutical industry as a result of 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“Thank you, Joe!” the crowd chanted back at Biden as he ticked through the specific drugs that will cost less, as well as other administration efforts to reduce health care costs.

The Medicare drug negotiations are expected to save the government $6 billion in 2026 when the prices take effect, and older Americans with prescription drug coverage could save roughly $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs. Other provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act kick into effect in 2025 that will reduce the amount older adults with high drug costs pay, including a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries.

But the pharmaceutical industry has decried the effort as "price setting" that will over time become a drag on drug research and innovation. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry trade group, also argues that the law did not do enough to ensure that patients do not face obstacles accessing medications at the pharmacy.

Rebutting that idea, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore — who, after telling the crowd they would hear from “the 47th president” was serenaded with chants of “48!” — spoke of watching his father die when the governor was a child because he couldn’t afford the health care he needed.

Harris, drawing on her own resume as California’s attorney general and senator and now her work as vice president, cast the Medicare drug negotiation as the continuation of a career spent fighting big business on behalf of consumers.

“For years, Big Pharma has often inflated the price of life-saving medications,” Harris said. “And millions of Americans have suffered as a result.”

While Democratic voters have quickly and enthusiastically embraced Harris’ candidacy, for the small but critical group of undecided voters in a handful of key states, the substance of Harris’ own agenda could still matter. Polls have shown that voters do not blame her for high inflation, which showed signs of dipping back below pandemic levels in the government’s monthly report this week. That gives Harris an opportunity to define her own economic program independent of Biden, to claim shared credit for their successes as she did here Thursday and to find new ideas by which she can stake out new ground, as she will likely do Friday and in the weeks to come.

Caitlin Legacki, a former Biden administration official, said that Harris “needs to thread the needle of highlighting the progress we've made, especially for non-college Americans, while acknowledging that many people are still feeling the crunch of inflation.” News of lower drug prices resulting from Medicare being able to negotiate directly with Big Pharma, she added, "may also fly under the radar, but is extremely important to the pocketbooks of millions of Americans.”

On Thursday, Biden was the main speaker, taking the stage last and using the opportunity to broaden his remarks into a wide-ranging populist pitch, ripping Trump for cutting taxes for the rich and attempting to repeal Obamacare while he was president. Referring to Trump as “the guy we’re running against,” the president sounded, for just a few moments, like he wanted to be the candidate again.

Although he has passed the torch and plans to give Harris more space to run her own campaign, Biden expressed confidence to reporters that he believes she will continue with his economic agenda. “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s working,” the president told reporters on the South Lawn before his departure to Maryland.

Asked directly if he thought Harris would run away from his economic agenda, he was confident. “She’s not going to.”

Robert King and David Lim contributed to this report.