Dan Burton: “I have been here for 21 years in this body. I know I look a lot younger, but I have been here 21 years. And I have never…”

“I have been here for 21 years in this body. I know I look a lot younger, but I have been here 21 years. And I have never seen the kind of pressure exerted on Members of this body like I have seen on this bill. They say it is about safety. It is not about safety; it is about money. They say it is about health, the health of the seniors who might be taken in by counterfeit drugs. It is not about that. It is about money, the money that the pharmaceutical companies are making on the backs of the American people. Talk to a lady who has got a child who is suffering from some very serious disease and she finds out, to buy her pharmaceutical products here, it costs four or five times here than what it costs in Canada or Germany or France. What do we say to her? It is about money. What do we say to a woman who has breast cancer, who is going to die, who needs Tamoxifen to survive? Her life depends on it. How do we tell her it is going to cost six or seven times what it costs in Canada or Germany for the very same thing? Is her life worth that much less? Tell me, is her life worth that much less? And if the profits are so great here and they are not as great elsewhere, then why not spread it around? Why should all these profits be loaded on the backs of the American people? When the Members vote, I want them to think about this. Think about this. And I approach this from a personal standpoint. There is a woman who is dying of breast cancer. This is one example.…”