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[No audio] Nice group, what a brilliant group and a nice group. Nice to see you all. Thank you very much. Please, sit down. I have to be a gentleman.
[No audio] Yes, thank you, sir. Always.
[No audio] So, we have a lot of press outside. I thought maybe we'd talk to friends before the press comes in. I don't know if this seat can be any lower. I think Bobby set it up --
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[No audio] Brought $5.1 trillion back with us, we --
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[Audio begins] Our country is hot and hot as it can be. It's amazing, if you go back six months, it was cold as could be. It was an embarrassment what was happening. And now I think we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. I don't even think it's close. I was told that also in the Middle East, three rulers, three very good men that were very nice to us. They said this is amazing, the transformation of the United States of America, they've never seen anything go so quickly and it's literally over a period of four or five months, but really since November 5th. And I think we have the hottest country in the world right now.
So, we're doing well, and we'll keep it going and we're going to have a lot of fun. We're going to make a lot of people happy, a lot of people well, that's why we're here. And I want to thank you all for being with us in the Great White House.
There's nothing like it. There's nothing like -- every time I walk in, I say, man, this place is something special. You never get used to it. It really is. As we mark a historic milestone in our mission to Make America Wealthy Again. You know, we started Make America Great Again. Bobby, I'm not sure you can get away with that without having to make a major payment because you know, this was -- [Laughter]
I copyrighted it. [Laughter]
-- MAHA. He goes to MAHA. [Laughter] But no, MAHA has become hot. Over the past few years, we've built an unstoppable coalition of moms and dads, doctors and young people and citizens of all backgrounds who have come together to protect our children. Very importantly, keep the dangerous chemicals out of our food supplies, get toxic substances out of our environment and deliver the American people the facts as to really where we're going.
And we want to have what we deserve. And we want to be healthy. And we want to have a lot of good things happen. And I think we're going to have that. I think this is just the beginning. We have some of the most brilliant people sitting on this panel. And likewise, in the audience. I recognize so many. Many of them are in the administration.
With us today is the man who fought harder than anyone I know to bring these issues to the center of American politics, our Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Bobby, thank you very much. And we're also joined by Secretary's Brooke Rollins, Scott Turner, Linda McMahon, Doug Collins, Doug Burgum, Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
You're doing a very good job, Lori. You know, she's -- considering she's a Democrat, you know. [Laughter] The unions say she's really good. I did it. You know, I took a lot of heat for doing it. And then they were all saying what a great job we did. Now they are -- everybody's happy with you. Great job. Thank you very much.
As well as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Budget Director Russ Vought, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. Kelly has been amazing. She runs small business, which is actually the biggest business there is, right? She had no idea how big it was. She's doing great.. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary. Thank you, Marty.
NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. Thank you very much, Jay. Thank you And let's see, who do we have here? CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. A tremendous guy actually. Thank you very much, Mehmet. A friend of mine, a really great Senator, Roger Marshall. Roger, thank you. Governors Mike Braun, Jim Pillen, Patrick Morrisey, Representative Vern Buchanan, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
Newt is a very quiet man. A silent man. [Laughter] Nice to see you Newt. Four months ago, I created the Presidential Commission to Make America Wealthy Again. And today, the commission officially delivers its first report on childhood health. Here are just some of the alarming findings. And they really are alarming, unbelievable, terrible.
More than 40 percent of American children now have at least one chronic health condition. Since the 1970, rates of childhood cancer have soared, in many cases, by nearly 50 percent. Five zero, 50 percent. Wow. In the 1960s, less than five percent of the children were obese. Now over 20 percent are obese.
A few decades ago, one in one -- think of this one, this is to me the one that gets me every time and it seems to be getting worse. Just a few decades ago, one in 10,000 children had autism. Today it's one in 31. Last time I heard the number is one in 34, right? Now it's one in 31. There something wrong.
And we will not stop until we defeat the chronic disease epidemic in America. We're going to get it done. For the first time ever, this report examines some of the root causes that many believe are making our children sicker and our population sicker. I guess it just doesn't stop with the children. So population also.
Such as the ultra-processed foods over medicalization and over prescription and widespread exposure to potentially toxic chemicals. Unlike other administrations, we will not be silenced or intimidated by the corporate lobbyists or special interests. And I want this group to do what they have to do. We have to spell it out.
In some cases, it won't be nice, or it won't be pretty, but we have to do it. When you hear -- when you hear 10,000, it was one in 10,000, and now it's one in 31 for autism. I think that's just a terrible thing. It has to be something on the outside. It has to be artificially induced. It has to be. And we will not allow our public health system to be captured by the very industries it's supposed to oversee.
So we're demanding the answers. The public is demanding the answers. And that's why we're here. Already, we're phasing out eight of the most common artificial food dyes. And we ended the most serious conflicts of interest at the FDA. We had a lot of conflicts over there. Earlier this week, we approved a SNAP waiver request from Nebraska so they can stop taxpayer dollars from being used to make our children obese.
I understand requests from three more states will be approved shortly and more are expected to come in the following weeks. Over the next 80 days, the commission will build on its work in this report to develop a roadmap to bold and transformative public health reforms for our consideration. It's a consideration, and we'll lay out the facts.
Let me say congratulations to the entire MAHA movement. This movement has become very hot. People are -- people are really, I tell you, they're going crazy over MAHA. They're going crazy, right? And I look forward to continuing the historic progress. And I will say this. This whole group, this whole table, they're very -- you know, I use a word, it's -- because it's a beautiful word actually.
The Democrats took it and they used it, instead of the word liberal. They used the word progressive. And normally I'd say you're very progressive, meaning you're far. They're not progressive. You are progressive. They shouldn't be allowed to use that word. And I'm -- And so therefore, I'm not going to use it to describe you.
But you are far forward thinkers. You're amazing thinkers. And we appreciate having you. It's just tremendous talent around this table. The most respected people -- Anywhere in the world actually. And -- and you know, I've -- I've been a fan of Bobby for years. He came up to see me 13, 14, 15 years ago, I remember.
And he left. And I made a couple of the statements that he made because I agreed with the same thing. And we both went through hell. Do you remember that?
I do remember that.
It was a massive. But you know what? We turned out to be right. It was sort of interesting. [Laughter] But I've been a friend of Bobby. And he's been a foe, too. You know, he's tried to stop a couple of my jobs. [Laughter] In one case, he did stop a job. And I was really angry. And then about four months later we went into like a depression.
And I saved a hell of a lot of money by the fact that he stopped -- [Laughter]
You're welcome. [Laughter]
So, I never minded it. I always said thank you very much for stopping that big job I was going to do. [Laughter] But he's a fantastic guy. And Bobby, we're with you all the way. And your beautiful wife is right sitting in the front row. And she's always been right there with you. And you know, it was very interesting when Bobby came, I really wanted Bobby to join.
And he was doing very well as a candidate. Really well. He was being treated very unfairly by the other side, but he was doing so well that they treated you unfairly. They had no choice. [Laughter] I think they said in order to qualify, Newt, you had to have 80 percent of the vote. OK. Do you remember that deal?
You had to have 80 percent of the vote in order to qualify to run against Joe Biden. [Laughter]
Yeah. [Laughter]
And Bobby thought that was a little unfair. And that was about it. [Laughter] And he came on board. And we got very lucky. But you really helped, and I want to thank you very much really. [Inaudible] Thank you very much. So -- so Bobby, if you'd say uh, give them -- give them your thoughts, please.
Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. And I -- I do want to say something because I get a lot of credit for steering this administration toward the MAHA movement. And I joined the campaign in August. I joined President Trump in August and became, you know, went from independent to his campaign. And -- but it was in June, so I saw and he made a speech specifically on this issue.
It was a MAHA speech before MAHA existed. And that -- I took note of that speech at the time and thought there is a potential here for a common ground. I want to thank you for your vision for your courage for standing up. You know, President Trump is a populist president. He's a president -- he's blamed for giving money to billionaires and all this stuff.
We hear about that all the time. But he is on the side of the middle class, the working class, the poor in this country, people -- And -- and following, I've met every president since my uncle was president, and I've never seen a president, Democrat or Republican, that is willing to stand up to industry when it's the right thing to do. And willing to talk about really difficult issues and to hold his stand on those issues.
I've never seen anything like it and I'm very, very grateful to you. I've sat with industry again and again in a room with him and heard him say we can't do that, we're going to do something different, deliver news that they didn't want to hear. So, I'm grateful to this. This is a milestone. There's -- never in American history has the federal government taken a position on public health like this.
And because of President Trump's leadership, it's not just one cabinet secretary, it's the entire government that is behind this report. And I can say again -- I talked a little bit about when I met Rachel Carson as a boy, my uncle tried to do this, but he was killed and it never got done. And ever since then, we've been waiting for a president who would stand up and speak on behalf of the health of the American people and say there is no difference between good economic policy, good environmental policy and good public health policy and good industrial policy.
We can have all of them, but we need a united cabinet, and we need to go forward as a single people. I want to thank you for that, President Trump
Thank you. Thank you.
At its core, this report is a call to action for common sense. We've relied too much on conflicted research, ignored common sense, or what some would call mother's intuition. It's common sense that ultra processed, nutrient poor food contributes to chronic disease. It's common sense that excessive screen time and isolation lead to anxiety and depression, especially in children.
It's common sense that exercise and healthy foods should come before prescriptions and surgery. It's common sense that not all calories are equal in nutritional value. It's common sense that overmedicating kids is dangerous. It's common sense that we can celebrate the innovations of modern life while also demanding fearless inquiry into ameliorating the negative effects of medication, agriculture and environmental practices.
It's common sense that research funded by corporations deserves more scrutiny than independent studies. I'm so proud of this cabinet, and particularly Secretary Rollins and Administrator Zeldin who, again, I'll say it a third time, worked late, late nights early into the morning to make this happen. And to all the leadership from the White House staff beginning with Stephen Miller and Heidi Overton -- Dr. Heidi Overton with Vince Haley Their leadership and their steady hand in getting us to the goal line was -- we could not have done it without them.
They helped us grapple with weighty issues and committed this administration to solving large, complex challenges like children's health. We're joined here by senators, advocates, governors who I have worked with and CEOs who I know who are all ready to begin carrying out this mission. This is the beginning of a conversation, a national conversation that we are going to have with maturity, with nuance for the first time in history, thanks to your leadership, President Trump.
There is a reason that the MAHA moms sided with you, President Trump. It's because this administration has the bravery to tell the truth and solve problems through innovation and not nanny state regulation. President Trump, I'm honored to present you the MAHA report and work with this incredible cabinet that you have brought together to make our children healthy again
Thank you.
Three things -- first, on behalf of an extremely grateful nation, and on behalf of a lot of extremely grateful MAHA moms who are out there, Secretary Kennedy and Mr. President, thank you. I see a MAHA mom and grandma in our amazing Chief of Staff right there, Susie Wiles. I see a MAHA mom and Karoline Leavitt and all across our cabinet.
Sir, my oldest son Luke is here. Stand up, Luke. I am a MAHA mom of four, and this hits particularly close to home for every single one of us in this room. That's the first thing. The second thing is that you mentioned, sir, in your remarks that we are on track to sign multiples of SNAP waivers to get junk food and sugary drinks out of our food stamp system and I am so proud.
I am so proud to announce that on Monday I was in Nebraska with Governor Pillen where we signed the first one. An hour ago, I signed the second one for Governor Braun in Indiana. He may not even know that, I've got it right here, sir. I also signed the third one, Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa, about an hour ago with a half a dozen more coming down the line.
And, sir, that has never happened before -- under Republican or Democrat administrations, we have never made that happen before. So, I am so proud and so grateful for your leadership.
We have Governor Morrisey here, who is the first one to apply, from West Virginia.
Oh, Governor Morrisey. We will make sure you're at the top of the pile, sir. I apologize. Governor Sanders has been a leader, Governor Polis from Colorado. It has been remarkable how these governors have stood up. That's the second thing. The third and final thing, sir, is we all know that at the center of making America healthy again is making American agriculture great again Without American agriculture at the center of this discussion, we have the most robust, the safest, the best agriculture system in the world.
And in partnership with the amazing Secretary Kennedy and all of these incredible patriots sitting around this table, under the leadership of the Extraordinary President Donald J. Trump, we will make America wealthy again. And what an honor it is to be a part of that. Thank you, sir
Thank you. Mr. Policy Man, do you want to say something? Big, big policy man here well?
Well, so much has already been said, but in your remarks, Mr. President, you made clear --
This is Vince Haley by the way.
In your remarks and in the report, it's very clear that there are no sacred cows when it comes to our children's health. We are showing the courage to turn over every stone to figure out, to investigate what is behind the chronic childhood disease crisis and that's what this report represents, sir.
Thank you, Vince, very much Are you going to have other people speak?
I had everybody speak.
Oh, good, most have already spoken, that's very good. But the fake news wasn't here [Laughter] What's going on? I mean -- I want to thank you for your work. Would you have anything to say to the media?
Thank you, sir. I think it's a moral failing if we don't address this, but it's definitely a financial failing as well. 50 percent of children are on Medicaid or on the CHIP program. It is an obligation we all have to address this reality. As you know, the cost of Medicaid has gone up 50 percent in five years.
Right.
I thank you very much for having the bravery to commission this report. And Secretary Kennedy, Secretary Rollins, Lee Zeldin, everybody else on this panel, for being able to effect what has not been done since this law for Medicare and Medicaid was written in 1965. God bless you.
Thank you very much, Oz, thank you. A man who's just so highly respected, Dr. Marty Makary, would you say a couple of words, please?
Thank you, Mr. President. The United States is the best in the world when it comes to proton beam therapy, CAR T, sophisticated operations. But when it comes to the health of the population, it's been a 50-year failure. And we have got to change course, and it's not until you have had the courage to let us take on these giant issues.
As Vince Haley said, without any sacred cows that we've been able to change. And I think this will transform our health care system from a reactionary system where doctors are playing whack-a-mole to a proactive system. So, thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. Thank you, man. Highly respected man, Jay, please say a few words. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President. I said earlier already that uh, it's shocking to me that what this report says, which is that our kids will live less long, less healthy, more unhappy lives than we will as parents. We can't have that. Uh, I'm so proud to be part of this moment. Because that doesn't have to be the future.
We can change things by doing excellent gold standard science, understanding the root causes of all these problems, reversing it. And Mr. President, this is an enormously important moment. Because it's -- from this moment forward, we will reverse course, so our kids will, will live longer than us, will live more healthy than us and will be happier than we have been.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. Good job. I have to say we have the greatest farmers in the world. And we love our farmers. And we want to pay respect to our farmers. And we always will. And we won the farmers by a lot in the election in all -- in every election, all three elections. And we won by a lot.
And I will never forget that. And they are foremost in our thought. And representing uh, I think, the farmers better than just about anybody can do as Senator Roger Marshall. Could you say a couple of words, Roger, please?
[Inaudible] Mr. President -- Mr. President, we're not tired of winning yet. [Laughter] Congratulations. What -- what a week you've had. Overseas one win after another, one big, beautiful bill across the House floor this morning. You're the best closer in the game. And -- and this is one of the greatest days of my life, professionally speaking as well.
And I just want to acknowledge my MAHA mom out here as well. That my wife, Lana, was a MAHA nurse and a MAHA mom and a MAHA grandma. Now, Lana, will you please stand up as well? My wife. Mr. President, as you know, I spent 25 years delivering babies most every day. We saw a huge epidemic of diabetes of pregnancy.
And -- and this has exploded in so many different directions now. We have an epidemic of -- in mental health, uh, in our -- in our youth. Obesity rates, 20-30 percent, 20 percent of our children on a prescription drug, 60 to 70 percent of adults on our prescription drug. We can do better than this. And it does start with the farmer.
It starts with -- with soil health. And I just want you to know that our farmers are so committed to this as well. And so many of them are already doing great things. They're making the soil -- soil healthier. They're using less pesticides. They're doing all the right things. It's going to take a little bit more effort and time to get everybody with those practices.
But the American farmer and rancher were the original environmentalists, the original conservationists. And they'll be right here working beside us. And we appreciate your support of them as well.
Thank you, Roger. Great. Thank you. So, I think I'll close by just saying that something happened a week ago that was very, very important, profound, but very important in so many ways. For years, I noticed that other countries paid much less for drugs and pharmaceuticals than we did. But I don't mean to percent less or 10 percent, which would be good.
But I don't mean 20 or 25 or 30 percent. I mean sometimes we paid ten times more, 12 times more, 13 times more than other countries where people from our country would be seen going into Mexico and seen going into other countries leaving on trips and bringing their drugs home because they'd get -- in London, they'd be able to buy a drug for one tenth the price of what it cost to New York City.
And I watched this. And I watched it during my term. And I didn't like it, I didn't like it. And it's a very complex system. But you know, we're smart also, maybe much smarter than they are. And at some point, we had to figure out. I heard it was the middleman. Nobody told me who the middleman was. Nobody knew who the middleman was. [Laughter] Nobody ever heard.
All I heard is the middleman. I said they've got to be the richest people in the world, whoever they are. We don't even know if there is a middleman. All I know is that the drugs were ten times higher and sometimes more than that. And I really got into it over the last year, and I figured the whole system out.
And uh, for various and sundry reasons, the United States of America was being screwed. And we were being taken advantage of and being laughed at for years and years. And I said it's not going to happen anymore. And I brought a great gentleman, the head of Eli Lilly in, who's great. He really is. He's great.
He's done a fantastic job. And others also of the companies and I have it out with them. I had debates with them actually. And pretty much it was a debate that was impossible to lose. You had to be a real bad debater to lose that debate. [Laughter] Because they couldn't justify it. They tried to say, well, you know, we pay for research and development and the United States has agreed to pay for 100 percent.
I said why? Why are we paying that? And by the way, that wasn't even the number because it's still way too high if you took all the research and development. But you have other countries that are a lot more vicious than us in terms of their representatives. And they'd set a price for a drug. And they'd say, tell the United States to pay for the rest.
We were subsidizing the whole world. And I said we're not going to do that anymore. We've been a laughingstock for so many years. The last four years we've been a laughingstock. I said it, we're a laughingstock. And now we're the most respected. And we're the hottest country in the world. We're going to remain that way.
And we're going to do that with drug costs too. And so I said I'm going to do something that's a very unpopular thing to do with a small number of people, mainly the people that own the drug companies and others. And I'm not even blaming them. They were able to get away with it. But it was really other nations that took advantage of us. Because the drug companies were under their thumb.
And they would say this is what I'm going to pay. And the European Union was right at the top of the list. Let me tell you. We're going to pay $20 for this, and we're not going to pay any more. And America would pay $240 for the same thing that they're paying $20. They said tell America to pay for the rest.
And for years they went along aimlessly, and they did it. And I started making changes. And I'll never forget the end of my first term, which was very successful. We had the best stock market ever. We had the best economy ever of any president. We went up 88 percent in the stock market as an example. And I think 116 percent in one or the other indices.
And we had -- we're doing well, but I never -- this whole thing with the drug costs. It always bothered me. And I started really studying it. And it's very complicated stuff. And I said, you know what? We are paying so much more. And I demanded favored nations. We're the biggest buyer. We're the best buyer.
We're the most solid buyer. We're the one that paid for all of the research and development. And I said, we're going to do something that's earth shattering. So at the end of my first term, I was so proud because it's the first time in 28 years that any president reduced drug prices during the course of four years.
And you know what that number was? One fourth of one percent, but it was down one fourth, think of it a quarter of one percent. Very little. Essentially they remained the same, but I wanted to get it down. And I was so proud. I thought I was the greatest guy in the world. [Laughter] I took it down one quarter of a percent.
And I had news conferences. I was bragging. I'm the only one that did it in 28 years. And then I said that's not very much. Because we were still paying so much more. And I decided I've got to break the system. And it's the most powerful lobby in the world, the drug company. Most powerful, they are. The most powerful.
And I'm not saying bad, good. I'm not saying anything. But they have tremendous power over the Senate, over the House, over the governors, over everybody. And they spend more money, billions and billions of dollars. And I said I don't care. I've got to do what -- I have to do what's right. And I declared a favored nations, most favored nations where the United States from now on is going to pay the exact same price as the lowest price anywhere in the world.
In other words, if you take --
That's amazing.
Right. In other words, if you take the uh, the country that's paying -- and let's say in a certain part of, you know, there may be some country out there that pays a little bit less for very good reasons because of the fact a thing called poverty or whatever. But we take the lowest countries, say European Union countries as a whole.
That will be fine, or take individual countries within the European Union. Or take various countries that nobody's even heard about. We pay the lowest. And what that's going to mean and I'd like to put somebody to police it because it should start immediately. It shouldn't start in two years, three years, five years, they'll say, yes, it kicks in. They always say kicks in, Marty. [Laughter] It kicks in, sir, in four years, you know. [Laughter] And then four years they get it changed.
It should mean -- so remember I told you I was happy with one quarter of one percent. It could mean anywhere from 70 percent to 89 percent reduction in drugs and pharmaceuticals. That's a little different, right? And I've actually had some congressmen call me. And they say, sir, look, can we talk about this?
I said no. [Laughter]
They wanted to talk because you know it's uh, it's tremendous power against them. And I understand that, and every one of them was covered, Senators were. I see Roger smiling and Roger probably was too. But you know what? He wants to do the right thing, right? He wants to do the right thing. And we're doing the right thing.
We were taken advantage of. And forget the drug companies, we were taken advantage of by other countries that insisted, with the drug companies, that they were going to pay X dollars and we're not paying any more and you're not doing business here. And they were nasty about it, because these people are almost sort of afraid of them.
And we are going to now get a reduction in drug costs of up to 89 percent in some cases, but 50 percent would be a low -- a bad number. So, think of that, 50 percent versus one quarter of 1 percent. Think of that, 85, 89, 91, 72 percent. It's going to be massive numbers. It's going to be incredible for Medicaid, incredible for all forms of healthcare.
Medicare is going to be -- it's going to have a huge impact, so big that nobody can calculate it. I mean, this thing could drop by 25, 30 percent. The drugs are, Oz, a very big part of it, right? So, very big part. So, it'll affect everything. It'll affect your whole life. The amount of money you're going to be saving is going to be incalculable.
Nobody can believe I had the courage to do it. I don't think it's courage. I think it would have been courage not to do it. I tell you what, not to do it would have taken far more courage because I was tired of it and I was listening to these guys. And they are -- you know, they make a lot of money every year, millions and millions of dollars a year.
And I agree because at the beginning, because of the complexity, you'd walk out of a room, you'd hear them talking and they'd almost convinced you that it's a great system, it's a wonderful system, even though we were paying ten times more. That's why they make $30 million a year. Because they were good but not any longer.
And one of them just threw up his hands after I was just pounding on him. He said I can't do it anymore. It's the hardest thing I have to do is trying to justify this damn thing. I can't do it anymore. One of the biggest companies, I just can't do it anymore. You're right. And as soon as he said that that was like incredible, because I understood exactly, he couldn't do it. He said it's the hardest thing he had to do is trying to justify why we're paying $200 for something and somebody else is paying $12, that is a neighboring country.
Take Canada, I mean people go up to Canada to shop because their prices are so much less and it's not going to happen anymore. So, we're going to take the lowest country anywhere in the world and that's what we're going to be paying, and we'll be saving from 50 to 89 percent. And these are big -- these are tremendous numbers.
There's not going to be anything where we're paying 10 times more than somebody else. And one thing that is very important and it's got to be implemented -- it's done. I've done the order, it's done. But we have to get somebody that's got a lot of strength and a lot of power because you have to implement it because these countries are going to go down fighting.
They don't want this to happen because they're going to go up. Now, there are many more people involved in the world than there are here. So, they'll go up a little bit, maybe 15, 20 percent. And we're going to go down 60, 70 or 80 percent. But they will fight the drug companies. The drug companies are very worried that they're going to fight and that's OK. If they fight, we'll just say that's OK. We're not going to let you sell any more cars into the United States, or we're not going to let you sell anymore wine or liquor or alcohol or something that's actually much more important to them than the drugs.
And we're going to be able to force that issue if we need to. They should do it. We're basically equalizing. They should do it, and you know the drug companies should do just as well. This shouldn't be a hit on their stock. I don't think it will be. It's basically -- it's going to be the same amount of money, but it's going to be redistributed and it's going to be redistributed so they're going to pay a little bit more and we're going to pay a lot less.
A little bit more because there's so many more. You know, it's a bigger number. And so, Bobby, I'd like to ask you and Dr. Oz and Marty perhaps and Jay and maybe representing the world's politicians, I can ask Roger, who's so great with this whole subject, if you would be very, very tough and very, very -- very powerful in a sense.
It's not easy. You know, you're going to have to get this done. The drug companies are going to say, well, they won't do it, and maybe they won't. And if they don't do it, we're going to not do business with that country or those countries. But we're going to have to be very tough until it's totally stabilized and equalized.
And Oz, I mean, I see your eyes are gleaming because you've been talking about this for a long time, but you've never had anyone willing to do it, but I'm willing to do it. And I think it's going to go down as one of the most important things we've ever done because drug costs are going down. Think of it, every year for 21 years, the costs have gone up, and now they're going down maybe by 85, 80 -- I'm telling you, 89 percent in two instances, 89 percent cut.
Nobody's ever seen anything like it. So, I'd like to ask Oz in particular, because you and I know each other. He's a very tough hombre this one. He's tough as hell. And so, if you can lead the group -- and it's not going to be easy, you're going to have to get in and you're going to have to fight. If you do it, you can have -- within a period of weeks, you can have drug costs that drop like a rock, OK? So, you as a group I have great confidence.
And if you don't do it, I am firing every single one of you right? Good luck, Oz. All right. Can you handle it?
[Inaudible] The companies are all coming in. We've had some very promising interactions. Give me a little time to be a tough hombre.
You'll do a great job; I have no doubt about it. Thank you very much. Any help, I will be there to help you, OK?
Well, your part -- you mentioned something that has not been discussed in the past. People have talked about drug prices in a silo and in isolation. But when you start going to the countries where they give discounts to you because they're getting beaten up there and you support these companies, they see huge upside potential, even greater than the numbers you mentioned.
They should be able to charge more than what they would historically have been tolerant of if they have the support of the US government and you. And Secretary Kennedy is aware of all these discussions.
Well, they were artificially low and artificially high. We were artificially high. They were artificially low. We're not going to let that -- and I think you're going to be able to handle it pretty easily. But speed is very important because we can do this immediately. This doesn't take two years, three years.
It doesn't take a month. So, do the best you can. Thank you very much Thank you, everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bobby. Are we concluded, Bobby?
Yes.
Go ahead, why don't you finish it off?
Thank you, Mr. President. Let's all give a hand for President Trump for his leadership
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much.