AOC Blasts GOP For Letting Elon Musk Killing Drug Pricing Reform

She slammed the Republican Party for allowing Elon Musk to derail bipartisan drug pricing reforms, calling the move a clear example of oligarchic control over American politics.

By Alexis Sterling, Nation of Change

In a fiery speech before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed the Republican Party for allowing Elon Musk to derail bipartisan drug pricing reforms, calling the move a clear example of oligarchic control over American politics.

The proposed reforms targeted pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—middlemen in the pharmaceutical industry who have been criticized for inflating prescription drug costs and driving small pharmacies out of business. While the legislation enjoyed near-unanimous support in Congress, it was abruptly dropped from the December budget bill after Musk publicly opposed it on social media.

Ocasio-Cortez directly linked Musk’s Twitter intervention to the bill’s sudden collapse, highlighting the billionaire’s outsized influence over Republican lawmakers and public policy.

Ocasio-Cortez detailed a timeline that showed how Musk’s opposition—posted online in the middle of the night—led to the bill’s rapid downfall.

“Republicans are in support, Democrats are in support — so what happened?” she asked during the hearing.

“Well, on December 15th, at 4:15 in the morning, Elon Musk began firing off a barrage of social media posts opposing pharmacy benefit manager reform,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

In the hours following Musk’s tweets, Republican leadership dropped the PBM reforms from the budget bill, even though lawmakers across the political spectrum had previously backed the measure.

“We had nearly 435 members on board with it—he sends one tweet, and all of a sudden, everyone backs off,” she continued. “And it kills drug pricing reform that would save people money on their insulin, on their asthma inhalers—everything that they need.”