Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I hear about rising costs of prescription drugs at nearly every one of my townhall meetings. Three years ago, I began a bipartisan effort to lower prescription drug costs. Following our Finance Committee hearings at that time, we had a markup, and we had bipartisan negotiations. Senator Wyden, now chairman of the Finance Committee, and I introduced, at that time, the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act. The bill caps yearly out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors at $3,100. It prevents drug costs from growing faster than the consumer price index on a yearly basis. It ends uncapped taxpayer-funded subsidies to Big Pharma. It creates more sunshine, more competition, and it even has oversight into the world of drug pricing. It brings meaningful reform while driving down costs. It has $72 billion in savings for seniors-- that is out-of-pocket costs to them--and $95 billion savings of taxpayers' money through Medicare. An important goal that we accomplish in our bill is lowering drug costs without hurting innovation. We did this by keeping government out of the business of setting prices and indirectly keep the government out of your medicine cabinet. Democrats have proposed the irresponsible idea of government dictating drug prices. They would do this by getting rid of the noninterference clause in the Part D part of Medicare. It is better known as so-called drug price negotiations, but it is not negotiation; it is dictating prices.…”