Rick Allen: “Yet if we listen to the debates, George W. Bush said during the debates that he wanted to do a Medicare prescription…”

“Yet if we listen to the debates, George W. Bush said during the debates that he wanted to do a Medicare prescription drug benefit. Three months ago there was no plan from the Republican nominee George W. Bush. He did not have a plan for prescription drugs. Now he has one. He adopted it based on what the Republicans in this chamber did. And what was that? That was a plan that the pharmaceutical industry loves, and only the pharmaceutical industry could love, because it was a plan that provided government subsidies to insurance companies so that they could provide private sector health insurance to cover prescription drugs. Little detail. Small problem. The health insurance industry has said loudly and clearly and repeatedly, we will not provide stand-alone prescription drug coverage for seniors. So who is the prescription for? The answer: It is for Republican candidates. Get them past November 7 and then we will deal with it. But by then it will be too late to deal with seniors to give them what they really need. They keep coming back. The way to do this is real simple. Follow the money. Follow the money. And the special interest money from the pharmaceutical industry through Citizens for Better Medicare, through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, through other business groups is not reliable.”