Barbara Mikulski: “In the last 2 weeks the Senate has taken up two of the most important issues facing the American people. First, we took…”

“In the last 2 weeks the Senate has taken up two of the most important issues facing the American people. First, we took on the issue of corporate governance. We passed a tough, new regulatory framework to deal with the cronyism and corruption in America's private sector. Now we are moving on to deal with prescription drugs for seniors. I have talked to many seniors in my State. They are really worried. They are worried about corporate scandals and they are worried about the impact these scandals are having on the market. They are watching the Dow Jones go down along with their life savings. While they see their life savings evaporating, they also see the cost of their prescription drugs going up. These two issues are linked. The crisis in corporate governance and the crisis in our markets, and also the whole issue of making affordable prescription drugs available to seniors, are linked together. Seniors now are talking about their own lives and times and families. The two things they do not want to worry about at this point in their lives are outliving their savings and the rising cost of prescription drugs. With the evaporation of their savings and the escalation of the cost of prescription drugs, they are really scared.”