Political Quotes

“I am glad to be here with my colleagues today to have a chance to talk about the 21st Century Cures bill. On Monday I came to the Senate floor to speak against a deal that was emerging in the House of Representatives around this bill. When Congress first started working on this proposal 2 years ago, the idea was for Democrats and Republicans to work together to improve medical innovation and access to lifesaving cures. For over 2 years a lot of people worked really hard on that effort. We had a chance to bring down the cost of skyrocketing drugs. We had a chance to support medical research so we could start to cure diseases such as Alzheimer's and diabetes. We had a chance to help coal miners whose health care is on the ropes and who are running out of time. Unfortunately, the Cures bill introduced in the House last week didn't do any of those things. Instead, it was a typical Washington deal--a deal that ignored what voters want, and held a bunch of commonsense, bipartisan health proposals hostage unless Congress also agreed to pass a giant giveaway to drug companies. So how did this happen? Lobbyists. Kaiser Health News estimated that the new Cures bill has generated more lobbying than almost all of the 11,000 bills that have been proposed during this Congress. At one point, there were about three lobbyists for every single Member of Congress. Every one of those lobbyists wanted favors. Wow.…”