I am old enough to remember when John actually still practiced law, and he would openly decry any additional effort by the federal government to regulate the private life sciences industry. But Clinton was at 1600 Penn., back then — and Mr. Hinderaker regularly decried it all, when Mr. Obama was the head of the Executive Branch — with Hinderaker being especially vocal, about the ACA of 2010. In fact, he regularly quoted PhRMA statements, to support the idea that we ought to just let life science companies do what they do best, given the already vast web of federal regulation that promotes… human safety.

Now, it may be said that when Trump takes a clearly-craven, anti-free market approach — with 19^th Century protectionist nonsense… he is usually just largely… marginal. Ineffectual. And most of it is just theater for his low education base, anyway (think of the Trump “bath-tub navy” boaters, here).

But when — as he did last month — he uses these antiquated “philosophical” underpinnings, try to dictate the pace of medical innovation — Trump is literally endangering human lives in America, for political theater.

And where is… John? Despite decades of opposing what he saw as excessively paternalistic Democratic Presidential moves in these areas… Hinderaker is as “silent as the grave“, on all of this Trumpian lunacy. [Maybe he just doesn’t have a client at the moment, paying him to take a reasonable position. But one might at least hope… he would stand up for human “rights to life“, here — if that is indeed his governing religious view.] Nope — silence.

From just one month ago — on how PhRMA sees Trumpism as ruining America’s lead in pharmaceuticals- and vaccines- development:

…“At a time when our nation’s priority should be to beat COVID-19, President Trump today signed yet another executive order that creates even more barriers to ongoing biopharmaceutical manufacturing and innovation. Companies are working around the clock to research and develop treatments and a vaccine for COVID-19. At the same time, they are working to ensure they have the capacity to manufacture the treatments and vaccines once approved so that every patient that needs them has access to them. These efforts are all hands on deck for the biopharmaceutical industry but each executive order issued by the administration adds another roadblock, making it harder to fight this pandemic.

“The administration is forcing biopharmaceutical companies to shift their critical attention and resources away from COVID-19 work to focus on making substantial changes to their business models necessary to comply with this and other recent executive orders. Increasing U.S. manufacturing of medicines is a laudable goal, but it cannot happen overnight and should not come at the expense of medical innovation or Americans’ access to the medicines they need.

“The recent executive orders also contradict and undermine each other, creating chaos in an industry that is on the frontlines of fighting COVID-19. With today’s ‘Buy American’ executive order, the administration effectively is taking the unprecedented step of mandating manufacturing of medicines in the United States. Yet at the same time, through the ‘most favored nation’ executive order, the administration is creating a huge disincentive to invest in U.S. biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing. Together, the result is less investment in U.S. innovation and the potential for major long-term supply chain disruptions — the opposite of what America needs right now. None of these executive orders will help patients access or afford their medicines.

“The ‘Buy American’ executive order could disrupt the global pharmaceutical supply chain, jeopardizing our ability to respond to the current crisis and potentially leading to major long-term supply chain disruptions, including shortages. Rather than government mandates, we should look for policies that enable more domestic manufacturing without putting the stability of pharmaceutical supply chains at risk….”

Well-put. But it seems… that Tangerine-colored Mussolini cat, has John’s usually sharp… tongue.

Out.