John Tierney: “I think people are just outraged by what is going on in this administration and with the Republican majority in the…”

“I think people are just outraged by what is going on in this administration and with the Republican majority in the House and Senate here. This is a bad bill to begin with, the prescription Medicare bill, the so-called Medicare reform bill, but when we add to that what can only be described as an affront or a blow to Congress' credibility, the aspect of finding the chairman, the man in charge of writing this legislation, actually closing the doors and excluding Democrats in the process, kept them out of any way of improving what turned out to be a terrible bill, ending up being offered over $2 million, if the stories are correct, $2 million a year from PhRMA, the organization that was out there lobbying for this bill, the organization that has over 600 lobbyists crawling around the Halls of Congress. If the rumors are true, then it is $2 million to the person who excluded Democrats from the process, that closed the doors, that negotiated the end of the bill, that formulated the bill that ended up giving, by some estimates, a $139 billion boondoggle to the prescription drug companies and manufacturers by putting in a provision that says the government cannot negotiate a better price. And all of this to the detriment of our seniors. I think people ought to be outraged. I know they are in my district.”