Janice Schakowsky: “as we speak right now, outside of this Chamber, our senior citizens who have come here begging us for some relief for…”

“as we speak right now, outside of this Chamber, our senior citizens who have come here begging us for some relief for the high cost of prescription drugs, they are telling us about how they are spending all of their money, rather than being able to buy the nutritious food or put a decent roof over their head, they are struggling to pay for the drugs that they need. We have only a few days left to provide real relief. A prescription drug benefit under Medicare is what they want. Now we are talking about reimportation of lower-cost drugs from Canada. That is fine. Let us do that. Although, I have to tell my colleagues, it is pretty crazy that we have to rely on the Canadian Government who puts some controls on the cost of drugs, the cost they are willing to pay, and we as Americans have to go and buy those same American-made drugs from the Canadians because we do not do anything to control the cost. Senior citizens need help. Let us get a prescription drug benefit under Medicare.”