Why should we expect Mylan or any other pharmaceutical company to refrain from yanking up the price of lifesaving drugs as high as the market will bear?
Republicans may rage at the CEOs who appear before them, but they haven't given the Justice Department enough funding to pursue criminal charges against corporations and executives who violate the law.
They haven't even appropriated enough money for regulatory agencies to police the market. Funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for example, is capped at 12 percent of the Federal Reserve's operating expenses. Even now, Republicans are trying to put the CFPB's funding into the appropriations process where it can be squeezed far more.
Meanwhile, Congress has allowed Wall Street banks and pharmaceutical companies to accumulate vast market power that invites wrongdoing.
Wall Street's five largest banks (including Wells Fargo) now have about 45 percent of the nation's banking assets. That's up from about 25 percent in 2000.
This means most bank customers have very little choice. Nearly half of American households have a Wells Fargo bank within a few miles of home, for example.
Every big Wall Street bank offers the same range of services at about the same price -- including, most likely, services that are unwanted and unneeded.
Similarly, Mylan and other pharmaceutical companies can engage in price gouging because they're the only ones producing these lifesaving drugs.
Congress has made it illegal for Americans to shop at foreign pharmacies for cheaper versions of same drugs sold in U.S., and hasn't appropriated the Food and Drug Administration enough funds to get competing versions of lifesaving drugs to market quickly.
So instead of setting up further rounds of CEO perp walks for the TV cameras, Congress should give the Justice Department and regulatory agencies enough funding to do their jobs.
While they're at it, break up the biggest banks. And regulate drug prices directly, as does every other country.
It's easy to holler at CEOs. It's time for to stop hollering and take action.
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