Political Quotes

“the 3-hour wheel of fortune that we witnessed the other day is reflective of the 3-week wheel of fortune, where the public interest and the public trust had been turned into a piggy bank for the special interests. There are 635 pharmaceutical industry lobbyists, a lobbyist and a half for every Member of Congress. If you walked down the hall, they were usually your shadow in this place. The reason we are talking about the process today is because the process was reflective of the policy and what happened and produced in this legislation, that is, the pharmaceutical industry when it came to dealing with the issue of price and affordability of prescription drugs, the will of the pharmaceutical industry was reflected but not the will of either our taxpayers or our senior citizens who are being forced into a system that requires that they pay 40 percent more than anybody in Canada and Europe. What we can do for our veterans, we can do for our seniors and get them to use bulk negotiations, which is a free market. Everybody on this side always says, I wish the government would act more like a business. We try to get it to act like a business, and what do you do? You turn your back on it. We can use either way to affect the price here. This is a debate that has now taken the public interest and the public trust and has turned it into a piggy bank for the special interests.”