Promises made – Promises Kept.  During a visit to the Florida panhandle today Vice-President Mike Pence and Second-Lady Karen Pence delivered a message and promise from the President to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base.

Tyndall is located in Bay County where the eye of Hurricane Michael came ashore.  The base, including all base housing, was totally destroyed.  There are great similarities between Homestead AFB after Hurricane Andrew and Tyndall AFB after Hurricane Michael; both bases suffered catastrophic damage.

There were many concerns Tyndall might fall to the same fate as Homestead and be closed due to the cost of rebuilding.  Thankfully, President Trump and VP Pence have committed to rebuilding the base.   This decision is incredibly important to the people in/around Bay county.  Many prayers are answered today.

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[Transcript] Tyndall Air Force Base – Bay County, Florida – 12:18 P.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all very much. Let me say, Karen and I traveled to the region a week ago to see the impact of Hurricane Michael, but this is our first trip to the Panhandle and to see the extraordinary devastation.

It’s been deeply moving to us, but also to see the resilience of the people of Florida and to see the progress that’s been made in just two weeks and a day is a great tribute to the people of the Panhandle. It is a great tribute to the men and women who serve here at Tyndall Air Force Base, in particular. And frankly, it’s a great tribute to Governor Rick Scott. And I want to thank the Governor for his strong partnership with our administration on behalf of the people of Florida affected by this storm.

As President Trump said when he was in the region not long ago, “We’re with you.” We’re going to stay with all of the families of this region impacted by Hurricane Michael until we “rebuild bigger and better than ever before.”

And working very closely with Governor Scott, with local officials here, our FEMA personnel continue to be on the ground. And we’re just going to make sure that all of the resources, all of the support is being made available from the government, as well as that we’re facilitating and making private-organization support to families directly impacted by the storm.

We’re particularly grateful to be here today at Tyndall Air Force Base, a vital military installation in our national defense. It is home to the largest fleet of our F-22 Raptors, a critical air operation center.

And the briefing we just received was greatly encouraging to me and I know to Secretary Heather Wilson. To see the way that Colonel Laidlaw and his team responded in the hours before the storm to protect the lives of some 11,000 Airmen and their families who serve here; to see the way that General Williams and his team have responded has been in the highest tradition of the Air Force. And it’s deeply inspiring to us.

We’ll take back the information from the briefing today, but President Trump sent me here with two messages. Number one was to congratulate Colonel Laidlaw and the 325th on the way they responded to Hurricane Michael. And number two, to say to all the men of the 325th and all the families in this region affected by this place: We will rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base.

We were able to announce today that what’s known as the Schoolhouse will return in very short order to this region. Eglin Air Force Base will be where our aircraft fly out of, but the simulators will be back online here soon.

And General Williams and the Air Operations Center will be stood up and operating very shortly. We believe by the first of the year, the Schoolhouse Air Operations, as well as the coordination in General Williams’s command, will be operating again.

And our commitment is, working very closely with Congressman Dunn and other leaders on Capitol Hill, is President Trump and I are committed to provide the resources necessary to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base so that it can continue to be a vital and critical part of our national defense.

With that, let me thank and recognize Governor Scott for his presence here today and for his great leadership.

Governor?

GOVERNOR SCOTT: Well, first off, I want to thank Vice President Pence and Karen Pence for being here. And that is unbelievable news. All of us in Florida know the importance of Tyndall. Probably everybody in the country knows the importance of Tyndall as a military base.

But for the people in Bay County, in this area of the state, we know it’s an economic driver. It’s a probably $2.5 billion-a-year economic impact. So it’s not only just important to the safety of our country, but it’s important for jobs. Tyndall probably impacts about 20,000 jobs in this area.

So I want to thank the Vice President. I want to thank President Trump for their commitment to Tyndall. I want to thank Colonel Laidlaw for — this is my second trip here. I came here right after the storm, and there’s been a lot of things that you’ve already — you’ve gotten a lot done.

I want to tell you that the first thing he said to me is his commitment to the military families. And I can tell you, on behalf of the state of Florida, we’re going to get the school open. We’re going to make sure the kids get back in their school. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure all the civilians that work in Tyndall can get back into their homes and get back into a normal life as quickly as possible.

I want to thank Secretary Wilson for her commitment to Tyndall and her hard work. She told me I did have to get a new hat — not a Navy hat. But I want to thank you for that.

And I want to thank Congressman Dunn for his commitment to make sure Tyndall is going to get rebuilt.

I also want to thank President Trump, Vice President Pence, and the entire administration for being so responsive on FEMA.

I spoke to the President — or the Vice President almost every day, right before the storm and after the storm. Everything I asked for has come through. One-hundred percent has come through. We’ve got individuals working for FEMA all over the impacted areas of the state. They’re well received. I’ve told Administrator Brock Long, he’s got people that they like. I think, in our communities, they don’t want him to leave. They liked him so much.

But they’re here. They provided the resources. And I know they’re going to stay here. And we’re going to make sure that, for every family in our state, whether it’s a federal resource, a state resource, or a local resource, it’s going to happen for every one of those families.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Governor. Thank you for that. Let me say again, we’re here to receive a briefing on the needs here at Tyndall Air Force Base. But President Trump sent me here today to commend all the men and women of the 325th, and to say to each and every one of them: We will rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base.

The details of that — maybe Secretary Wilson, maybe you could elaborate a bit about what reopening the Schoolhouse here, getting the air operations center back up will mean in real terms.

SECRETARY WILSON: Well, for the air operations center — the air operations center at Tyndall Air Force Base is responsible for the air defense of the homeland of the United States. And a few hours before the storm, that was transferred to another air operations center, and we’re going to get it back here. And over 800 people work in that air operations center, and we want to get back to initial operating capability by the 1st of January.

The Schoolhouse, which is where we train F-22 pilots for the nation, is here at Tyndall Air Force Base. The simulators here were not very badly damaged, and we think we can get those back up and operational, and be training pilots here.

So we are going to bring the Schoolhouse aircraft, which are F-22 aircrafts, as well as T-38 aircraft, and stage them out of Eglin. And we are going to restart the simulator we’re flying here at Tyndall. We can’t fly aircraft out of Tyndall at the moment. But by Thanksgiving, we will have F-22s in the skies over the Panhandle.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Questions?

Q Many people are counting on the jobs. Tyndall Air Force Base has put so many jobs and people to work. How soon can those people in this area — surrounding areas — get back to work?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, let me say, our commitment here, as Secretary Wilson just described, is to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base, first and foremost for our national defense.

I mean, what Colonel Laidlaw and his team did here, with very little notice, as Hurricane Michael approached, was in the highest tradition of the United States Air Force. To be able to move that many personnel, that many resources that quickly, it’s what the Air Force knows how to do. And we’re inspired by that.

But we want to respond with just as much energy. And President Trump’s message for me to deliver today is that we’re going to rebuild this base, and by taking the immediate steps of reopening the Schoolhouse in short order. The air operations center that General Williams commands has more than 800 personnel, which will be back on the base.

But our objective is to make sure that the families that serve here are able to return here as quickly as possible. And I remain very confident that, with Congressman Dunn’s support, with the strong support of Governor Scott and leaders in the Congress, that we’ll have the resources to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base.

Q When you flew in, can you just describe what you saw here at Tyndall?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I would tell you that, for Karen and me, it was just deeply moving. I mean, our heart breaks for the families that have been impacted all across the Panhandle.

Our prayers have been with those families, with our first responders. But to see even after two weeks of cleanup the level of devastation that is still evident and the hard road back that this community will have to take is very moving to us.

But, what I want to assure people all across this region is we were with you that day, we were with you the day after, and we’re going to continue to stand with the people of the Panhandle until we rebuild bigger and better than ever before. That’s our pledge. That’s President Trump’s solemn promise. And I know that Governor Scott, the state of Florida, and leaders across this region will work with us to see to it that that happens.

Q Talk about the resources being provided to those military families to keep them here, working at Tyndall and surrounding areas.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I might let the Secretary speak to that specifically. But they are very much — let me say, the families are on our minds. We’re the Second Family of the United States, but we also have a son in the service, and a daughter-in-law, and so our hearts go out to all of the families that have been impacted by Hurricane Michael here at Tyndall Air Force Base. And we’re going to make sure that we make this as easy on the families as possible.

The Colonel and I spoke about that today. But, Secretary, maybe you can unpack what we’re doing for the families.

SECRETARY WILSON: Kudos to the base here and Colonel Laidlaw and his team for supporting the families. And we have people dispersed all around, mostly the southeastern United States.

The United States Air Force has committed $100 million, so far, just in recovery efforts here on the base. And Colonel Laidlaw has teams at different Air Force bases to help all of the families, as well as we’re getting and pushing information out to them.

Colonel Laidlaw and his team evacuated 11,000 people in less than 22 hours, and got most of the aircraft off of this base and not a single (inaudible) death. And it’s — you know, that’s something you could never recover from if you lost a life in a storm like this. So kudos to the team and the leadership team.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: And, Colonel, you had shared with me that some of the families during the transition periods will be able to be at Eglin and continue to operate, particularly some of the pilots will be operating aircraft out of Eglin. Maybe you could describe some of that transition for families.

COLONEL LAIDLAW: Yes, sir. Absolutely. What I would say is, first off, thank you very much for all the support. Like you, the families and our Airmen are first and foremost in our minds in a time like this.

As the Secretary said, we recognized pretty early on where our had repositioned. We found where those pockets of people were. And I’ll be the first to say we don’t have all the answers yet, but the answers that we do have, we’re doing the best we can to get those to the people who need them very quickly.

One of those areas that have a high concentration of our Airmen and their families is just west of here at Hulbert Air Force Base, Eglin Air Force Base. So we have a welcome center set up for those Airmen and those families. You can get things like legal advice, you can get moving advice, you can get personnel center advice. We have school liaison officers, because I know schools are on people’s minds as well.

So in the short term, what we’re going to do is we’re going to use the resources that we have. We’re going to put those resources in the places where we know the people are. And as we develop the plan forward for who’s going to go where and what equipment is going to go where, we’re going to keep pumping out information the way that we’ve been doing it as best we can for the last two weeks.

So my answer to that question is: Keep asking them. I’ve got a team of folks here on base and a team of folks throughout the Air Force that are committed to helping me answer those questions as best as we can. And, quite frankly, some of the hard questions are going to take a little while. Keep those questions coming because those families are on our mind. And that is key tenet for the strategy that we’ve been pursuing for the last two weeks.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Colonel. And Karen and I, and the Governor and the Secretary, will be traveling to meet with families at a local church in just a few minutes. We want to make sure they know they’re on our hearts, in our prayers. We’re grateful for their service.

Most of our military personnel serve as families. We want the families of Tyndall Air Force Base to know that we’re with them, but we’re grateful for them. Grateful for the response of the leadership here and grateful for all the Airmen, the way that they responded as Hurricane Michael approached.

And our message is very simple: The Commander-in-Chief is proud of the men and women of Tyndall Air Force Base, and we’re going to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base.

So thank you very much. Appreciate you all being out.

END – 12:32 P.M. EDT

Earlier today President Trump delivered remarks at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about ongoing efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs.  Introducing a new set of HHS and FDA pharmaceutical reforms.  Excellent initiative.

[Transcript] U.S. Dept of HHS – 2:14 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  It’s a big day.  It’s a very important day.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Please.

Thank you very much, Secretary Azar, for your tremendous leadership.  This really is an important day for me.  I’ve been talking about drug price reductions for a long time.  And now we’re doing things that nobody was, let’s say — because I’m speaking on behalf of all of us — bold enough to do.  And they’re going to have a tremendous impact.

I also want to thank FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.  Scott — stand up, Scott.  You’ve done such an incredible job.  Really, an incredible job.  (Applause.)  And CMS Administrator Seema Verma for joining us.  Seema, thank you very much.  Seema, great job.  Great job.  (Applause.)

I’m thrilled to be here at the Department of Health and Human Services, and I want to thank everybody.  I understand that it’s been decades since the last President came here.  And I’m very surprised that President Obama didn’t come here for Obamacare.  Explain that one to me.  (Laughter.)  But he didn’t.

But it’s a great honor to be here.  You do an incredible job.  You really do an incredible job.  So I thank you.

Since the day I took office, I have made reducing drug prices one of my highest priorities.  Last year, the FDA approved more than 1,000 low-cost generics — the most in the history of our country.  This year, we beat that record, approving even more generics.  These new approvals are leading to cheaper competitive alternatives for lifesaving drugs like the EpiPen, saving Americans almost $9 billion a year last year alone.

Since releasing my drug pricing blueprint in May, 16 drug companies reduced their list prices, rolled back increases, or froze their prices for the rest of the year.  We called a few of those companies recently, where they raised their prices, and I guess maybe it was one of the times that I realized how powerful the presidency is, because they immediately rolled their prices back to where they started.  And those companies know who we’re talking about, and we appreciate it very much.

Earlier this month, I signed two bills to lower the cost of prescription drugs: the “Know the Lowest Price Act” — “Know the Lowest Price Act,” it’s a big thing — and the “Patient Right to Know Act.”  And, by the way, put those two together and you have a complicated deal.  (Laughter.)  Sounds simple, but that one is not.  Ending the unjust gag clauses once and for all — where you’d go into a drugstore and the pharmacist wouldn’t even be allowed to talk about alternatives or pricing.  How ridiculous is that?  Think of it — how ridiculous.  That’s not going to take place anymore.  And, actually, the pharmacists are very happy about it.

Patients now have the right to know the lowest price and most affordable alternative available at their pharmacy.

Today, we are here to announce another bold and historic action to bring down the price of prescription drugs.  With the action I am unveiling today, the United States will finally begin to confront one of the most unfair practices — almost unimaginable that it hasn’t been taken care of long before this — that drives up the cost of medicine in the United States.

We’re taking aim at the global freeloading that forces American consumers to subsidize lower prices in foreign countries through higher prices in our country.  And I’ve seen it for years, and I never understood.  Same company, same box, same pill, made in the exact same location.  And you’ll go to some countries, and it would be 20 percent the cost of what we pay, and in some cases much less than that.

And I’d say, “Why is this?”  I never knew that I would be able to stand here before you and have a chance to fix it.  And that’s what we’re doing.  We’re fixing it.  That’s called “real-life experience,” I guess.

For decades, other countries have rigged the system so that American patients are charged much more — and in some cases much, much more — for the exact same drug.  In other words, Americans pay more so that other countries can pay less.  Very simple.  That’s exactly what it is.  It’s wrong.  It’s unfair.  It’s not surprising.  I’ve seen trade deals where it’s far more costly to us than even this.  And we’re changing them also.

Foreign countries even threaten to disrespect our patents if they are not given cheaper prices on drugs.  So they’re not going to even look at the patents.  They’ve been very, very disrespectful, previously, to our country and to all of the things that we stand for.  And especially, they would disrespect patents when it came to American-made drugs.

The American middle class is effectively funding virtually all drug research and development for the entire planet.  So we are paying for it.  We are subsidizing it.  Everybody else is benefitting.  And they are paying nothing toward research and development.

The world reaps the benefits of American genius and innovation, while American citizens — and especially our great seniors, who are hit the hardest — pick up the tab.  But no longer.

Here are just a few examples: For one eye medication that helps prevent blindness, Medicare pays over $1 billion dollars a year.  If we paid the prices other nations pay, we’d bring the $1 billion down to $187 million dollars a year.  It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?

We spend more than $1 billion a year on two drugs to treat bone disease, but we could save more than $800 billion [million] dollars — think of that — $800 billion [million] saving for our seniors by paying the prices other countries pay.  Nothing special — just the prices that other countries pay.  That’s the way the United States has been disrespected for too long in too many ways.

One common cancer drug is nearly seven times as expensive for Medicare as it is for other countries.  This is a highly used and very effective drug.  And it’s seven times more expensive.  Not fair.  This happens because the government pays whatever price the drug companies set without any negotiation whatsoever.

Not anymore.  Under our new plan, the Department of Health and Human Services would allow Medicare to determine the price it pays for certain drugs based on the cheaper prices paid by other nations.  Some people call it “favored nations clauses.”  We have them in business.  We have them in a lot of different contracts that I’ve seen over the years and been part of.  “Favored nations” — so think of that.

So, we’re paying a price based on the price that other nations are paying.  That’s what we’re going to pay.  No longer seven times more.  No longer 10 times, 11 times, even 12 times more — I’ve seen examples of paying the same price.  I’m talking about billions and billions of savings to people.  To people.

We will no longer accept the inflated prices being charged to our seniors.  I had a congressman — respected congressman — come to the Oval Office and say, “Sir, for my constituents, drug pricing is more important than healthcare.”  And I said, “Explain that to me.”  But he actually said “drug prices” — I’ve never forgotten the expression — “drug pricing.”  We know how important healthcare is.  “Drug pricing is even more important for my constituents.”

At long last, the drug companies and foreign countries will be held accountable for how they rigged the system against American consumers.

This is a revolutionary change.  Nobody has had the courage to do it, or they just didn’t want to do it.  And this is a change for the people.  This is not a change for industry or for companies or for pharma.  This is a change for the people.  It will be substantially a reduction in drug prices for our people and our senior citizens.  Tremendous, tremendous difference.

Our plan will also fix a broken payment system where doctors are reimbursed more if they prescribe a much more expensive drug.  Under our new proposed payment system, doctors will be paid a flat rate — and when you think of it, it’s like being a contractor or anything else — if it’s an expensive drug or a less expensive drug, it’s the same.  Doesn’t take any more.

And I think this will be good in terms of the pricing of the drug; it’d be fantastic for that.  But it will also be much better for patients and it very well may be better for doctors.

This follows other significant actions that we have taken to protect Medicare for our great seniors.  We have given the plans that serve more than 45 million seniors on Medicare Part D and 20 million seniors on Medicare Advantage new tools to negotiate lower prices.

Thanks to our actions, this year, premiums for both Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage have — and I’ll give you a word that you haven’t ever heard — ever heard — have “gone down.”  (Laughter.)  You’ve never heard that word.  (Applause.)

True.  True.  Gone down.  And now they’re going to go substantially down.

Sadly, a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives have co-sponsored a very socialist healthcare plan that would destroy Medicare, terminate Medicare Advantage, and outlaw the employer-sponsored healthcare plans of 157 million Americans.

We think that they’re going to actually come along with us when they see what we’re doing.  We think.  We hope.  It’s something that makes no sense any other way.  So we really think that can be bipartisan.  It happened to be a Democrat that told me how important drug pricing was.  It wasn’t a Republican in this case; it was a Democrat.

Under this administration, we will always protect Medicare for our great seniors.  And we will always protect Americans with preexisting conditions.  Always.

In every action we take, we are putting America first.  And this is very much about putting America first.  We get tired of having people go to other countries to literally fill prescriptions.  And you know where I’m talking about.

We’re fighting for lower drug prices, which will now be automatic.  It will be automatic and very substantial.  Lower premiums, where we’ve done a really god job with healthcare in bringing the premiums down to a much lower level — much more acceptable level.  And we’re going to be soon announcing some things that will really have a tremendous and positive impact on healthcare also.  And better healthcare, very importantly, for every single American.

So I just want to thank everybody in this room.  You’re outstanding people.  I know how hard you work.  I know how important your work is, how brilliant your work has to be, and how complex a job you have.  You have a very complex job.  You have everything.  You have probably every single element of life in the work you do.

But I just want to let you know, the American people very much appreciate — have great respect for you.  I think they’ll even have more.  That will go up very significantly when they see their drug prices falling.  They’re going to say, “What’s happened?  They must have made a mistake.”  (Laughter.)  It’s true.  They’re going to go up to the counter; they’re going to say, “Did you make a mistake?”  Some won’t say that, they’ll just think it.  (Laughter.)  And some might say, “Did you make a mistake?”  But you’re going to see a big reduction.

I want to thank everybody very much.  It’s an honor to be here.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)

END – 2:27 P.M. EDT