Biden’s FTC Must Not Pick Winners and Losers
Lina Khan, President Biden’s Federal Trade Commission chairwoman, says that she isn’t a fan of anti-consumer monopolies. That’s great; both sides of the aisle should agree that action against problematic behemoths is warranted. However, cherry-picking which companies do and don’t receive government scrutiny, seemingly for political reasons, is not so great. Unfortunately, this “winners and losers” approach to Khan’s regulatory work has become commonplace, and it’s greatly affecting American consumers’ welfare.
Comer must identify any revolving doors that exist between this agency and its favored industry actors.
Case in point: Recently, the Biden FTC again went after groups known as pharmacy benefit companies, which health plans hire to negotiate their prices down. Khan and others have accused these companies of skimming too much of the cost-savings they accrue for themselves.
While it’s fine that Khan keeps looking into PBMs — it’s her job, after all, and I supported strong oversight and reviews of PBMs while in Congress — it’s quite odd that, over the last three years, she hasn’t seemed willing to even initiate a cursory investigation of any of the other corporate entities within the supply chain that may be ballooning consumers’ healthcare bills. Thus far, the Big Pharma companies that shower political leaders with campaign contributions have evaded her scrutiny, as have the problem hospitals that data shows are price gouging.
When it comes to healthcare, it seems that the special healthcare interests that treat the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress well have evaded scrutiny. In contrast, the interest groups they disfavor regularly receive the administrator’s regulatory gulag. This isn’t how the FTC — one of the leading pro-consumer agencies in the country — is supposed to function.
To her credit, Khan has remained reasonably transparent about being unfair throughout her FTC tenure. In 2021, her commission even rescinded the consumer welfare standard. This policy guidepost ensured the FTC interceded in the economy when consumers faced harm from predatory business interests — and only in such cases. (READ MORE: Beware Congress’ Latest Big Pharma Enrichment Scheme)
Rescinding this standard benefited the Biden administration, giving it more political power. It has significantly increased the White House’s ability to weaponize the state against its political enemies in various industries while keeping other potentially harmful conglomerates that it sees as allies protected. But this increased power came at an incalculable cost to the health of the American republic. It transformed yet another once invaluable governmental institution into dust, turning one of consumers’ most reliable public sector allies into an enemy.
Republicans need to stop this mockery of our age-old institutions. Although the GOP doesn’t control the White House or the Senate, it does control the House of Representatives. It’s here that they can shine in rooting out any potential corruption at the FTC and recovering its consumer-oriented mission.
The best man for this job is Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who has chaired the powerful House Oversight and Accountability Committee since 2020 and served it well. His committee, the main investigative committee of the House, has earned a hard-won reputation for exposing waste, fraud, and abuse.
So far, on healthcare specifically, Rep. Comer has (like Khan) held extensive hearings on PBMs, but he hasn’t yet started investigating the drug companies or hospitals. He needs to add them to his healthcare investigatory pile to ensure that Khan and Biden don’t get away with picking winners and losers — and fair pricing and level playing fields in the healthcare industry can finally emerge. (READ MORE: FTC: Let Europe Run America)
Beyond this one issue, Rep. Comer should also go broader and investigate Lina Khan and the Biden FTC more broadly. He needs to determine if there have been meetings or other questionable interactions between the commission and Big Pharma and the other special interests helped by the commission’s selective regulatory agenda. Comer must identify any revolving doors that exist between this agency and its favored industry actors.
We’re all keeping our popcorn on standby.
Renee Ellmers is a Registered Nurse and former member of Congress from North Carolina.
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