Political Quotes

“I rise to speak specifically to another proposal on principles that was released yesterday in the House of Representatives. We have been urging now, since I came to the Senate over a year ago, and certainly before that time, that our colleagues from the other side of the aisle join with us to act to get action in two areas related to critical health care and prescription drugs: One, a comprehensive Medicare prescription drug benefit. Modernize Medicare, update it. Everyone knows that it was written in 1965 and covers the way health care was provided in 1965. It needs to be updated to cover prescription drugs, the primary way that we provide health care today. Second, we know there are important actions we can take right now to lower the cost of prescription drugs for every family, not only for our seniors who use the majority of prescriptions--on average 18 different prescriptions a year--but also for those families who have a disabled child or another family member who is ill. We need to lower the costs now. We need to lower them for small businesses. We need to lower them for larger businesses. Our farmers are struggling with higher costs. We can do that. Certainly we appreciate that our colleagues have come together with fanfare to talk about four principles: One is lowering the cost of prescription drugs now. I suggest that putting those words on paper does not lower the cost of one pill. It does not make one more prescription available to our seniors.”