Biden to tout lowered prescription drug prices in ad during Packers-Lions

Voters in both swing states are getting messages about the president’s accomplishments on drug prices, insulin price caps, and closing corporate tax loopholes.

Any table talk about politics around this year’s Thanksgiving dinner may be fueled by something seen on TV during Thursday’s Green Bay Packers football game in Detroit—a new ad promoting President Joe Biden’s record on prescription drug prices.

The Biden-Harris 2024 campaign is placing ads in the largest Wisconsin and Michigan markets—where Biden beat Trump by only 0.6% and 2.8%, respectively. It’s part of a 16-week, $25 million advertising campaign in battleground states. 

“Big Pharma has been unfairly charging families and they’ve been making record profits,” Biden says to a crowd in the ad. A narrator then says some politicians have tried for decades to lower prescription drug costs, but “Joe Biden finally got it done.”

Pointing to accomplishments made when Democrats also controlled both chambers of Congress, the ad reminds viewers of how Medicare was given the power to negotiate for lower drug prices starting this year—ending a 20-year roadblock by Republicans. The ad also touts an insulin price cap for Medicare recipients of $35 per month, and a cap on out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 per year.

Passed with no Republican votes, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act “raises $300 billion over a decade by requiring large corporations to pay a 15 percent minimum tax on their profits and by enacting a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks and redemptions,” said a White House fact sheet. 

“No billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a schoolteacher or a firefighter,” Biden says in the ad’s conclusion. “Here’s my message to you out there. Your president has your back.”

“As Wisconsin families come together to celebrate this Thanksgiving, our campaign is proud to highlight President Biden and Vice President Harris’ commitment to driving down costs for America’s middle class,” said Kevin Munoz, Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson. “The 2024 election will present Americans with a clear choice: whether we continue to build an economy that centers working families or return to the same failed MAGA agenda of giving tax handouts to the ultra-wealthy. The difference in leadership couldn’t be more stark, and our campaign is going to make sure Wisconsin voters hear about it early and often.”

The Democratic National Committee put up a billboard last week near one of Milwaukee’s busiest interchanges to highlight the two-year anniversary of Biden putting his signature on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.