Trumpenomics- When Numbers Stop Meaning Anything in America

Is the President and his cabinet smarter than a fifth grader? NOPE Public remarks on drug pricing continue to raise that question with increasing urgency. Middle school mathematics establishes a simple rule: percent change is measured against a starting value of 100. If a drug moves from 100 dollars to 600 dollars, the change equals a 500 percent increase. If that same drug moves from 600 dollars back down to 100 dollars, the change equals an 83.3 percent decrease. These are standard calculations taught in middle school algebra and pre algebra curricula, typically around grades five through seven. Twice, in the last two days, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. echoed a framing that treats a prior price increase as the basis for describing a later reduction as 600 percent. That approach blends two different baselines into a single figure. The result produces a number that does not align with how percentage change is defined in mathematics or economics. If applied consistently, a 600 percent decrease from any positive price would require a negative final price, a scenario that does not exist in real markets. In practical terms, it would mean payments flowing to customers for filling prescriptions. Either they are lying or simply ignorant. At present, the arithmetic being presented fails basic verification. The numbers do not reconcile with accepted mathematical definitions. At this point, it appears necessary to remind leadership that mathematics does not operate by political appointment. While you are crunching those numbers, you may want to study what is often referred to as Trump Derangement Syndrome, not as a label for people who dislike Trump, but as a phenomenon describing how some have abandoned independent judgment in favor of unquestioning political loyalty. The emperor has no clothes. Someone should tell him. Republicans look like fools.