Pete Stark: “I guess I would be willing to suggest that the Medicaid programs are perfect, but for one major problem, and that would…”

“I guess I would be willing to suggest that the Medicaid programs are perfect, but for one major problem, and that would be the Republican Party in the Congress of the United States. What changes would I make? I would enforce the ethics rules to keep their hands out of the pockets of the lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry who fly them about in jets and give them hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions, which keeps them from allowing reimportation of drugs which would save many of the Governors a good bit of money on their Medicaid programs. Changing the ethics rules that let people who might make unethical moves would be another great move, so it would prevent the managed care industry from getting extra money in the Medicare bill which would prevent the Republicans having the money to help Medicaid. {time} 1830 The Medicaid growth is due largely to the lousy job the President has done in job growth, the worst job since Herbert Hoover and the last Republican who had low job growth which increases the demand on Medicaid and the number of poor children and low-income workers who are forced to get their medical care through Medicaid because they are out of work through no fault of their own. So if we would have decent ethics rules, if we would allow reimportation of drugs, if we would stop allowing the lobbyists to buy votes, we would be able to get the kinds of reform that are needed.…”