On Thursday, Zero Hedge posted an article about a plan to adopt a bill in the Senate to ban pharmaceutical companies from promoting prescription drugs directly to consumers.

The article reports:

Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, both independents, on Thursday will introduce legislation that would ban pharmaceutical companies from promoting prescription drugs directly to consumers – including through television, radio, print, digital platforms, and social media, the WSJ reports.

The proposal would mark a sweeping shift in the U.S. advertising landscape, where pharmaceutical companies are among the largest spenders. Prescription drug brands accounted for roughly 13 percent of all ad spending on linear television in 2025, totaling approximately $2.18 billion so far this year, according to iSpot data. In 2024, the industry spent $3.4 billion on traditional TV ads between January and August alone, according to ad-tracking data.

“The American people don’t want to see misleading and deceptive prescription drug ads on television,” Sanders said in a statement. “They want us to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and ban these bogus ads.”

The interesting part of this is that the current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly called for this ban. Both of the Senators introducing the bill voted against his confirmation as Secretary. So if they are in agreement with some of his most basic policies, why did they vote against his nomination? Is this simply another example of the Groucho Marx song:

I don’t know what they have to say
It makes no difference anyway
Whatever it is, I’m against it
No matter what it is or who commenced it
I’m against it

That sort of thinking does not move the country forward.