Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice and Daniel Lippman.  

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When President JOE BIDEN signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law on Aug. 16, there was one provision in particular that was supposed to be a surefire political winner.

Allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of a handful of major prescription drugs had not just been a decades-long pursuit of Democrats — and more recently DONALD TRUMP too — it polled exceptionally well. Seniors would benefit. And seniors voted.

But if a party wants to enjoy the political fruits of its labors, it must be sure that voters are aware of the fruits. So far, the public seems to be largely in the dark.

A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that just 36 percent of voters knew that the Inflation Reduction Act allowed the federal government to negotiate drug prices. According to KFF’s executive vice president for health policy, LARRY LEVITT, it was a “wake-up call for Democrats” just weeks before the midterm elections.

“They’re clearly not getting through to voters,” he said, despite all the time and effort the party has spent claiming credit for the suite of reforms aimed at lowering health care costs.

The White House has championed the IRA as striking a major blow against “special interests” like the pharma lobby, highlighting in particular the power it grants Medicare to negotiate drug prices. And outside allies, including the AARP and health advocacy group Protect Our Care, have poured resources into promoting the bill’s accomplishments to voters across the country.

But the numbers, collectively, are quite modest. According to Bully Pulpit Interactive (BPI), a communications and marketing agency, Democratic candidates and outside groups have spent roughly $240 million on digital and TV ads on Senate races since Aug. 16. Of that total, $19.3 million, or 8 percent, were for spots that addressed prescription drug costs and drug pricing changes.

By comparison, Democratic candidates and groups have spent 21 percent of their budgets on ads addressing reproductive rights, 7 percent on criminal justice and public safety, and 6 percent on gun safety.

Democrats working on the issue said the main problem at this point isn’t necessarily the message or money behind it, but that there isn’t enough time before the midterms to hammer it home. The drawn-out negotiations over the IRA meant that campaigns will have only had a few months to educate voters on what’s in the bill, likely limiting its influence on their vote especially as other concerns like abortion and the economy dominate the headlines.

In addition, voters aren’t yet seeing the bill’s benefits show up in their bank accounts. New limits on price increases for certain drugs don’t begin until 2023 and a cap on older Americans’ out-of-pocket spending doesn’t kick in until the year after that.

As for Democrats’ big Medicare negotiation achievement? Biden could be in the last year of his second term by the time it’s fully phased in.

“When I read that this morning, did I sigh? Yes, I did,” DAVID MITCHELL, founder of the advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs, said of the KFF survey. “But did it surprise me? No.”

But even if voters can’t rattle off the specifics, a Biden adviser argued the IRA is still helpful in reinforcing Democrats’ message that they’re tackling pressing issues like high drug prices — and that the Republicans who voted against the bill are not.

That framing has even gotten a boost from the GOP itself in recent weeks, after a group of Senate Republicans introduced legislation rolling back the IRA’s drug provisions. It was a gift, the adviser argued, and one the White House is more than happy to accept.

“After decades of rich special interests blocking Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices – something the American people overwhelmingly support – President Biden and congressional Democrats have delivered,” said White House spokesperson ROBYN PATTERSON. “But congressional Republicans are actively trying to sell middle class families out to Big Pharma, proposing plans to kill Medicare’s new ability to lower prices, raise insurance premiums for working families, and put Social Security on the chopping block.”

MESSAGE US — Are you policy adviser BEN JACOBSON? Email us at [email protected].

This one is from Allie. Which president installed the first putting green on the White House grounds?

(Answer at the bottom.)

BIDEN’S FIRST NATIONAL MONUMENT: The president traveled Wednesday to Colorado to make his first designation of a new national monument: the Camp Hale–Continental Divide National Monument. The site spans nearly 54,000 acres across the state. For such a big space, we expected a cooler name.

Biden is gonna chill out west for the week, making stops in California and then Oregon, also known as the DankBelt.

NERD ALERT: National security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN has some fans, as evidenced by the high turnout Wednesday night at his Georgetown University speech on the admin’s first National Security Strategy. The line was long. And we say “nerd” with love because, clearly, we are not cool. (Editor’s note: except EUN. Eun’s cool.)

THE PRESS SHOP TANGO: The Washington Post’s MICHAEL SCHERER has the latest reporting on the new press and communications shop roles in the White House.

The comms team will add JENNIFER MOLINA as a deputy communications director. She will join fellow deputy communications director HERBIE ZISKEND and principal deputy communications director KATE BERNER. They all are under KATE BEDINGFIELD.

EMILIE SIMONS, an assistant press secretary, is being promoted to deputy press secretary to replace CHRIS MEAGHER, who left for the Pentagon. Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES is adding to his title and will be “senior communications adviser for strategic response.” The White House says he is staying on the press team but taking on additional rapid response tasks.

The White House is also bringing back MICHAEL KIKUKAWA (aka “Kiku”) after a short stint at Treasury, to be an assistant press secretary. Robyn Patterson is also being detailed over from the Commerce department.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: The latest approval ratings for the president. CNN’s ARIEL EDWARDS-LEVY writes that Biden’s overall job approval rating has “recovered modestly from its worst summer doldrums: 44 percent of U.S. adults approve, up from 38 percent in CNN’s June and July polling. Biden’s ratings have risen 9 percentage points among Democrats and 8 points among independents since that previous poll, with the president’s image also seeing particularly marked improvement among Black Americans (up 17 points) and adults younger than age 45 (11 points).” White House chief of staff RON KLAIN retweeted the news.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: Ironically, the same poll. While Klain boasted today that “we’ve build [sic] a strong labor market, getting Americans back to work at a record pace, and near record unemployment,” voters don’t seem to agree.

As Edwards-Levy writes: “Just 22 percent of Americans rate economic conditions in the country as good, with 41 percent calling conditions somewhat poor, and another 37 percent saying they’re very poor.” And only 26 percent of voters believe Biden’s “policies have improved conditions.”

DARK BRANDO… WE NEED TO KEEP DOING THIS?: The Dark Brandon meme is alive and well. Andrew Bates posted a new rendition of it, playing off the news of NASA’s latest asteroid defense (the backdrop appears to be a mix of posters from “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact.”) You can read West Wing Playbook’s deep dive into the meme here.