‘Of Course Wages Are Stagnating’: Glenn Grothman Fires Back At Khanna, Blames ‘Excessive Immigration’

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During a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) fired back at Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) over wage stagnation.

Transcript

00:00Thank you. I've got to respond to a little bit of that. First of all, wages are stagnating.

00:07They're stagnating under the law of supply and demand. We just had a president who led

00:1110 million people in this country. Of course wages are stagnating. And I think a lot of

00:16times the business community is just fine with that. I've had businessmen complain to

00:20me. I have to give my workers another raise here. Isn't that horrible? Can't we have

00:28more immigrants around here? So we know why wages are stagnating. They're

00:32stagnating because of excessive immigration. As far as our universities,

00:37there's no diversity of thought there. My one other comment, you talk about people

00:42who think and read. In my experience, people who are skeptical of our medical

00:47community or our pharmaceutical community are the most well-read people in my

00:51district. That's why they're skeptical. They go beyond just the blather you get in

00:58the mainstream media. But okay, now we've got to ask some questions here. I'll ask one of

01:04you folks. It seems to me that we, am I correct here, we have more pharmaceuticals

01:11per person, prescribed, consumed or whatever in this country, in the world, or at least

01:18more than any other Western countries? You don't know. Okay, we'll try to get another

01:27quick question. Do we have more antidepressants consumed in this country than other countries?

01:33We don't know. Stumped again. Okay, we'll go for Mr. Williams. Americans have been grappling

01:46with, I'll digress for a second. As far as bringing new pharmaceuticals on the market,

01:52do you believe the pharmaceutical industry itself has a disproportionate influence in determining

02:01which drugs come on the market and which off-brand drugs are not going to be researched?

02:05My expertise is in food, food safety and nutrition, not in pharmaceuticals, unfortunately.

02:14Okay, well, we'll give you, we'll give you a food question then. Americans have been grappling with

02:21high inflation, especially food inflation, during the Biden administration. Grocery prices rose 22 percent.

02:28Would you simplify the FDA's food regulatory structure to lower prices? Could you give me

02:34some examples of what could be done? Yeah, I believe that is exactly what I would do.

02:40I think a lot of the problem with FDA's food regulations, from my expertise, and it really

02:45is now going on over 40 years and I continue to look at it, is that too many of FDA's regulations

02:51were not being made because it was going to keep food safer or because it was going to help nutrition.

02:56A lot of it is because of some firms controlling FDA saying we want regulations to put our competitors

03:03at a disadvantage. All those regulations have to be complied with and all of those,

03:08all of the, all of that compliance by those firms raises prices. They don't pay for,

03:13they don't pay for the regulations. This is a big misunderstanding, particularly in FDA. It's consumers.

03:18Can you give me a ballpark number on which you think food prices could have dropped? If we didn't have,

03:24what I will refer to as unnecessary regulation?

03:27I wish I had that information. I don't. But I think it would certainly help. And it would certainly

03:32help FDA to focus their resources, to target their inspections and focus their resources on real risk.

03:39Okay. We will give Mr. Bentley a question or Mr. Miller.

03:45Mr. Miller does spend a great deal on medicine and a lot of that is on, on drugs. Nevertheless,

03:56our life expectancy seems to be less than other developed countries. Can you comment on that?

04:02Mr. Congressman, my expertise is basically in tobacco policy, but I will say an easy way that we could

04:10increase life expectancy and reduce cancer is have more authorized, safer alternatives to cigarettes

04:17onto the market, which FDA has been stymieing for the last five years.

04:21Okay. Mr. Miller, you got any comments?

04:24I would just add that when it comes to holistic products, products made from American agriculture,

04:32like hemp, these give alternatives to pharmaceuticals that a lot of Americans find tremendous relief in,

04:39and we should be promoting them, but we should also, as I've been saying, regulate them strictly.

04:44Okay. I have Mr. Bentley and Williams and Mr.

04:52Fourth one down the line. One more question, or one more crack at it. It seems to me,

04:57compared to other countries, that we are over-medicated and I'm not sure that it's resulting

05:05in better health. Could you comment on that?

05:09Congressman, my expertise is not in that area, but I will say that our drug supply,

05:15which is my expertise, is probably the safest in the world. In fact, the next time you go up

05:20and pick up a prescription, you probably should buy a $2 lottery ticket. You're more likely to hit

05:24that than to ever get a counterfeit medicine in a pharmacy. It's really the pride of the world.

05:31I'll just add to that. In fact, I think medicine has been responsible for our longevity up till now,

05:38but I think it's time to focus on prevention. And I'm very glad to see that there are a number of

05:43people entering government now that are focused on prevention more than medicalizing people who are

05:48already ill.

05:50Okay. Before I recognize Mr. Infumi, Mr. Cristomortes asks for

05:55thank you for

06:00thank you for

06:02thank you for

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