Walter Kirn
speaker
1,232 appearances
7 recordings
1 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard 24 Nov
Walter Kirn’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 2.
Appearances
serious about it that influence is gone you can't advertise if you don't have the money and that money that big giant pot of profits that was on a five dollar drug uh you know 995 dollars it goes or whatever is not going to be poured into these influence operations going forward except in the short term because there's no way they want this to come to to come to pass
Well, here's a case of a non-American company, a Danish company that's stiffing the United States, but not the country next door, Germany. Why is that?
Well, but, Megan, they have been acting poor and developing almost since World War Two. And for a while they were they were devastated by war, you know, for several decades and trying to get back on their feet. But the truth is we have been subsidizing European socialized medical programs. In other words, and in so many ways we've been doing that.
Our military payments and our undue support of NATO has allowed them to not have militaries of their own. and pour money into social programs. The social programs themselves have been subsidized in ways like this, where they negotiate, they get good prices from companies, and we don't. In other words, we're carrying the weight for the world.
And this, in this case, has nothing to do with development. The recent certain development isn't going on in the United States. We're simply paying for it. Now, how they got that deal and through what influence, is something we should investigate later, but that it should go on is something we need to deal with yesterday.
They can still have their profits, Megan. It's just that the subsidies for them will be more evenly distributed between countries and customers.
Listen, I don't understand why they're still paying development costs and research costs on a drug that they've already developed. And frankly, which is a rather simple substance compound. And as far as, you know, manufacturing and gearing up to make more of it because of the overwhelming demand.
Well, what other industry tells you that in order for us to gear up to meet the demand, we need crazy, almost unlimited ability to charge you? If Ford had a hit car and it said, We've got to build new factories to turn out the number of cars that people want to buy. And we've got to keep those prices really high in order to do that. That's the opposite of what I just heard.
Isn't there something called economies of scale? The more you sell, the cheaper and the more you have to make, the cheaper it is to manufacture each unit.
Let me launch a rather elaborate metaphor, but a colorful one. The United States is like a member of a family who hits it big in Hollywood and they suddenly become rich and they have a big house and, you know, money coming in. And all of a sudden, all the relatives say, hey, man, can you help me? Help me with my car payment. Hey. My son just got sick. Can you help with his hospital bills?
And then after a while, that arrangement becomes institutionalized. Meanwhile, all the greedy relatives are doing quite well, but they decide we have to cry poor in order to keep living off our movie star cousin. At this point, the movie star is about to lose his mansion. He's mortgaged it 10 times. And he's got problems of his own. And it's time for the rest of the family to step up. Yes.
If we go down to paying 400 per dose and they go up from 90 to paying 400, the pharmaceutical company actually hasn't lost. They can go do its precious development and research all day long. But what's happened is that there is once again some sort of fairness in the family.
So only Trump, only Trump, Walter. Is he going to go on Broadway after he finishes his presidency? Because I saw I saw Jackie Mason on Broadway back when and he had nothing on Trump. This story. But this storytelling side of him is really effective, just like I just tried to use a colorful story to explain things.
Trump, from no tax on tips to other policies, often seems to come to his brilliant, uncontroversial, outrageous ideas by talking to people who are affected by the policies. Oh, my Lord, what a revolutionary way to do politics and to, you know.
research policy not go through a 10 billion dollar think tank but ask the waitress you know if she gets to tax too much on her tips that's right or ask his very fat friend who's on the fat drug the fat shot he's on the fat shot what i love is that embedded in that megan is he took a shot at the drug itself he said it's not working it's not working
That's a cross between cabaret and the Hunger Games, what we just saw there. That is truly a man singing for his supper. And his supper is provided by Pfizer. And if you go over to the actual news channels right up in the corner, it will say sponsored by Pfizer. You know, the COVID death count sponsored by Pfizer. Anderson Cooper is not going to like this. Rachel Maddow is not going to like this.
None of those people, but they're going to have to be very creative in finding a way to question it or oppose it. So I make a prediction. At first, they'll try to have their cake and eat it too. They'll applaud the sentiment, the goal, the idea in general, but they'll tell us the execution is terrible and is going to lead to disastrous consequences. for the very poorest among us.
I mean, especially they'll set the damage in places you and I won't ever go, you know, East Africa and so on. And tell us over there, it's just... wreaking devastation. But the fact is that finally they're going to have to come down on one side or the other, especially the politicians. And they're going to come down on Farmer's side if that's who's supporting them.
I mean, this is a kill shot against the rhetorical hypocrisy of Democrats and Republicans who always can be for something that will never happen. It's easy to be for lower drug prices when you happen to know from the meetings back at your office with the Merck president that it's never going to happen. Now it happened.
We'd love to lower prices for Americans, but the Constitution won't allow us, so just shoot me. It's not going to work this time. This is a slightly different deal, too, Megan. This isn't exactly what he tried before. This has to do with... Other organizations that set drug prices, these intermediaries that raise the price. It's a little bit subtler and it's more gamed out than it was before.
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