Politics & Power Quote by Jim Clyburn

Clyburn’s line is built like a pincer: praise for corporate winners on one side, a blunt tally of human loss on the other. “Unprecedented profits and access” isn’t neutral bookkeeping; it’s an accusation that policy has been engineered as a VIP pass for pharmaceutical companies. The word “access” does heavy lifting, hinting at lobbyists in back rooms, cozy meetings, and regulatory decisions shaped by donor proximity rather than public need. He’s not merely arguing that drug companies make too much money; he’s implying the Administration is governing in a way that treats industry as a partner and patients as an afterthought.

Calling the Republican prescription drug plan for seniors a “colossal failure” deliberately overshoots polite critique. It’s meant to puncture the signature health-care achievement of the Bush-era GOP, widely associated with Medicare Part D: a sprawling, privatized benefit that helped many seniors but was criticized for complexity, coverage gaps, and a structure friendly to insurers and drugmakers. “Colossal” frames it as systemic, not fixable with tweaks, and sets up the moral contrast that follows.

Then comes the statistic: “over 43 million.” That number (a common mid-2000s benchmark) grounds the rhetoric in scale, but “wake up every morning” turns a policy problem into a daily stressor. It’s a cinematic beat: not spreadsheets, but people starting their day already exposed. The intent is coalition politics with teeth - energize Democrats, embarrass Republicans, and make corporate influence feel like the smoking gun behind ordinary insecurity.