SOTU Review

President Trump’s State of the Union speech contained much to like. He touted One Big Beautiful Bill Act tax cuts. He cited several initiatives to right-set the country: an effective focus on reducing crime and securing the border, several foreign policy accomplishments, efforts to remove DEI radicalism and initiatives to prevent the criminally easy access of unqualified foreign truck drivers in obtaining commercial driver’s licenses.

He announced a renewed focus on ferreting out health care waste, fraud and abuse—though care must be taken to avoid past mistakes, such as going primarily after small-fry cheaters instead of large-scale fraud operations and overrelying on the False Claims Act and statistics reflecting certain patients and institutional expertise instead of fraud.

Of course, Mr. Trump bragged about his tariffs. He cast most of his talking points in the superlative, overclaiming his actions’ benefits. There was no admittance that tariffs may have helped keep Americans’ cost of living elevated and “affordability” at bay, even after other means, especially deregulation, were bringing down a good bit of the terribly painful Biden inflation we all endured.

Mr. Trump merely pitched drug price controls, “most favored nation” pricing. Behind that short mention, though, lies an epically reckless, destructive proposal that’s right out of the Huey Long school of socialist economics. The Trump administration recently put forth MFN rulemakings called GLOBE and GUARD.

The Trump plan for drug price controls is every bit as extreme socialism as former Louisiana governor and U.S. Sen. Huey Long’s 1934 “Share the Wealth” plan. Long advocated redistributing wealth and setting a top income level.

Conservatives for Property Rights filed comments opposing GLOBE and GUARD and urging their withdrawal. Here’s our argument:

“The MFN model CMS proposes raises very serious concerns from a property rights perspective. The chief concern is that the ‘most favored nation’ (MFN) model employed in both GLOBE and GUARD imposes foreign governments’ price controls. The lowest prices foreign freeloaders get away with paying result in great harm and adverse consequences for their own citizens. Importation of foreign government-run health programs’ artificially low payments will cause the same adverse consequences for millions of private U.S. citizens and leading American entities in medical innovation — both startups and established manufacturers. It is not an overstatement to say the MFN models of GLOBE and GUARD will ultimately cost many Americans their lives, their health, and their livelihoods.”

The SOTU speech included some heart-warming moments: the U.S. men’s ice hockey team, fresh off its Olympic gold medal victory; a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War belatedly presented the Medal of Honor; and the Coast Guardsman who last year rescued more than 160 campers from floodwaters at a Texas camp and one of the rescued campers.

There were tear-jerking moments: for instance, a 7-year-old California girl who was badly injured in a highway crash caused by an illegal alien driving an 18-wheeler with a CDL he shouldn’t have been issued; a young woman who’d been swept into the coercive transexual surgery system when she wrestled with feelings of masculine gender; the wife of murdered conservative leader Charlie Kirk; and the wounded national guardsman and parents of the murdered Army National Guard specialist, both shot while on duty in downtown Washington.

To be honest, the number of shout-outs to such guests was too many. The more these occurred, they tended to diminish the honor afforded the many deserving individuals. Something uplifting and uniting took on the air of a spectacle, which was unfortunate.

Then there was the deplorable conduct of many of our nation’s “leaders.” The Left-wing Squad wins the prize for most unbecoming conduct. Democrats on the whole embarrassed themselves. Democrats’ vast majority refusing to stand and applaud at those moments, such as recognizing our Olympic hockey team or the badly wounded pilot whose successful mission snatching Venezuela’s Maduro came at personal cost.

You don’t have to agree with the Commander in Chief’s policy decisions to show respect for someone who wears the uniform of the United States and suffered injury in combat. To stand and applaud isn’t compromising your principles, it’s doing your duty as a U.S. official by showing due respect to a fellow American who answered the call of military duty. You don’t have to agree with Charlie Kirk’s politics to show respect for, sympathize with and express consolation toward his widow.

The president’s conduct too often stooped to too many Democrat attendees’ despicably low level. Name-calling, chiding, insults. Berating Supreme Court justices over a legal ruling that was widely expected because the language of an emergency powers law had been stretched far beyond reason.

The chance to unite at least the more rational among the opposition party was lost. This was the prime occasion to rise above opponents’ rudeness and display presidential demeanor and self-control. It was a missed opportunity in that respect.

The state of our union? It remains deeply divided, volatile, and, while seeing a range of improvements, stands under threat of reversal. If adopted, socialist price controls will hand China the global leadership and clear competitive edge in biopharmaceutical innovation the United States holds today. While neither party won the occasion, the whole nation stands to lose if MFN becomes law.