The Headlines - Harris’s Strategically Vague Economic Message, and Russians Feel the War

Episode Date: August 16, 2024

Plus, charges in Matthew Perry’s death.    Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:Harris Is Set to Lay Out an Economic Message Light on Detail, by Jim Tankersley and Andrew DuehrenAt News Conference, Donald Trump Says He’s ‘Entitled to Personal Attacks’ Against Kamala Harris, by Michael GoldUkraine’s Incursion Into Russia Flips the Script on Putin, by Anton Troianovski and Alina Lobzina‘Shoot Me Up With a Big One’: The Pain of Matthew Perry’s Last Days, by Julia Jacobs and Matt Stevens

From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. Today's Friday, August 16th. Here's what we're covering. The Biden administration unveiled the results of its landmark negotiations over drug prices yesterday, and it could mean massive savings for the federal government. The administration negotiated price limits with pharmaceutical companies for 10 medications, including widely used blood thinners and arthritis meds. The Biden administration said if the prices were already in effect, Medicare would have saved $6 billion last year. The new prices will kick in in 2026, and the vast majority of the savings will be for Medicare, which is funded by taxpayers. But the negotiations could also lead to out-of-pocket savings for some of the millions of Americans who take the drugs covered by the deal.

It's the first time the federal government has ever negotiated directly with drug makers on behalf of Medicare recipients. And the talks were authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, one of President Biden's signature pieces of legislation. I've been waiting for this moment for a long, long time. First time I sponsored a bill to let Medicare negotiate the price of drugs was in 1973 as a freshman senator. Biden marked the moment yesterday at an event in Maryland alongside Kamala Harris. And he emphasized that under the Inflation Reduction Act, the government will be able to continue negotiating drug prices for a growing list of medications. We're just getting started. Under the law I signed, Medicare can negotiate lower prices for another 15 drugs next year,

15 the following, and 20 after that until every drug is covered. At yesterday's event, Harris credited Biden with making health care more affordable for Americans. As she's risen to the top of the ticket, questions have been swirling about what policies her administration would promote, especially about cost of living and the economy. I cover economic policy at the White House, which often means really detailed plans, presidential budgets, the cost of tax increases or tax cuts over the course of a decade.

And so far in covering Vice President Harris's run to the White House, she just hasn't put out much detail at all on the economic proposals she's offering and what they might cost. Jim Tankersley has been covering how Harris and her campaign have been talking about the economy. She's set to give her first speech on the topic today in Raleigh, North Carolina. Jim says she's expected to focus on the idea of reining in the cost of living, but there likely won't be a lot of specifics. The strategy that many of Harris' advisors are kind of pushing her towards is something I call

strategic vagueness. Like, you want to tell people in principle what your priorities are. I want to bring down housing costs. And you might flesh out some policies that would help do that. But the more detail you offer, the more you give your opponents to attack. And so if you don't have to put out that detail, the argument goes from her aides, why would you? You have plenty of time if you win the election to actually assemble a policy blueprint for when you take office. It was actually something that Donald Trump, her opponent, is doing too. He doesn't detail anything. He just sort of tosses out numbers every once in a while. But, you know, it has worked for him. And so I think that this is sort of, in some ways, Harris taking a page from that approach of, I'm going to

try to be clear with people about what I want to do with the economy, but I don't have to give them, you know, a hundred numbers to attack. Meanwhile, Trump held a news conference yesterday, which was also intended to highlight economic issues. Grocery prices have skyrocketed. Cereals are up 26 percent. Bread is up 24 percent. Butter is up 37 percent.

He spoke in front of a table displaying gallons of milk, cans of soup, and a dozen eggs, and started his speech by blaming the Biden administration for rising food costs. Trump's advisers have been urging him to focus on topics like inflation that they think will sway undecided voters. But as his speech went on and he took questions from reporters, Trump veered into wide-ranging tangents, complaining about Hillary Clinton, windmills, and Kamala Harris. I'm very angry at her that she'd weaponized the justice system against me and other people. Very angry at her. I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence. Recent polls have shown Harris gaining ground in key swing states,

though the race remains tight. In the Russian region of Kursk, Ukrainian forces are continuing their attacks, more than 10 days after launching their surprise offensive across the border. While their progress has slowed, Ukrainian officials say their forces have taken control of their first urban center, the town of Suja, and that hundreds of Russian soldiers have surrendered. If you're following this Ukrainian invasion on Russian TV, everything seems to be under control. But our reporting shows that on the ground, things are really different. Anton Troianovsky covers Russia for The Times.

He says that in the area near the invasion, more than 130,000 Russians have had to evacuate, seek shelter. The air raid sirens have been constant. One conversation that really stuck with me as I've been on the phone talking to people in Russia and in Kursk this week has been this conversation that a Russian opposition politician described having with a displaced woman at a shelter. This woman told this politician I spoke to that she'd been there since the first day of the war. And then the politician realized that by the first day of the war, she didn't mean February

2022 when Russia invaded, but she meant last week when Ukraine invaded. And that really drove home the point to me that this is a moment that is really bringing this now 30-month-long war into Russian homes in a very different way than they've experienced it up until now. And finally. We're here today to announce federal criminal charges related to the death of the actor Matthew Perry. In Los Angeles yesterday, prosecutors announced charges against five people for providing ketamine to Matthew Perry, the star of Friends, who was found dead last year after taking the drug. The charges were filed against Perry's personal assistant, an acquaintance, two doctors, and a drug dealer known as the Ketamine Queen. These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong.

They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry, but they did it anyways. Ketamine is a powerful anesthetic with psychedelic properties, and it's been increasingly used as an alternative therapy for some mental health issues. Authorities say Perry became addicted to it after using it to treat his depression and anxiety, and sold more than $50,000 of ketamine to Perry's assistant. His assistant told law enforcement that in the weeks leading up to Perry's death, he was giving the actor six to eight shots of ketamine per day. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, the climate consequences of America's dependence on air conditioning. You can listen on The Times audio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

This show is made by Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford, with help from Isabella Anderson. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, and Paula Schumann. The headlines will be back on Monday.