Political Quotes

“I felt it was important today to come to the floor and speak about the efforts of the House of Representatives to lower the cost of prescription drugs for our seniors. There has been a measure passed that will require that the Secretary of Health and Human Services negotiate prices. It sounds like something that is pretty straightforward and common sense: to negotiate the very best price for our seniors and people with disabilities. I know my distinguished colleague and friend, the now-ranking member of the Finance Committee, has spoken about his objection to that approach. I think it is important that we also have voices speaking out about why we believe this makes sense for Medicare, for taxpayers, for our seniors, and for the disabled. The facts really bear out that this makes sense. We are not talking about whether we do research and development on new breakthrough drugs versus being able to get prices that are affordable for our seniors. There is an ample way to be able to do both. In fact, we, as taxpayers, provide a tremendous amount of the money that is currently being spent on R&D, and it is important we know we can afford the medicine that we are helping to pay to have developed.”