Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. surprised onlookers by claiming that President Donald Trump employs his own version of calculating percentages.
The health and human services secretary testified Wednesday morning before the Senate Finance Committee, where he told Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) that the 79-year-old president uses a “different way” to determine percentages to explain discrepancies in his claims about prescription drug price reductions, reported Newsweek.
“President Trump has a different way of calculating percentages,” Kennedy said. “If you have a $600 drug and you reduce it to $10, that’s a 600 percent reduction.”
Warren pointed out that conventional mathematics would determine that as 98 percent reduction, and she faulted Kennedy for using inflated figures that could mislead patients about their actual savings on prescription medication, and social media users chimed in with criticism of the Trump administration official.
“I get that she had limited time but I really wanted to hear him explain this calculation method,” pondered NPR’s Linda Holmes. “Does he think 600 is 600 percent of 10? I WANT TO KNOW.”
“No, you imbecile,” scolded influencer Brian Krassenstein. “That’s a 98.33% drop. No math besides make-believe math makes it 600%.”
“I teach middle school math and it’s sad that my 6-8th graders know how to calculate % of decrease better than the president of the United States and his cabinet chair,” agreed teacher Tiffany Callaio.
“They told me there would be no math,” sighed attorney Ken White. “And they were right.”
“We are routinely admonished to take these people seriously,” marveled reporter Dan Mitchell.
“Well, then, its no wonder so many of Trumps businesses went bankrupt,” noted X user Calee B. “Reducing $600 by 600 percent results in -$3,000 (negative three thousand dollars).”
“First they came for evolution,” said climate scientist Kate Marvel. “Then they came for climate science. Then they came for epidemiology. Then they came for, like, really really basic math.”
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