Gilbert Gutknecht: “Six times. I do not care what kind of a discount card you have, the differences are still too huge. We have an…”

“Six times. I do not care what kind of a discount card you have, the differences are still too huge. We have an obligation to our taxpayers to make certain that if we are going to have a prescription drug benefit for people who need that benefit, we have to make certain, as the gentleman says, that we get a fair price. But, frankly, as long as we are at it, why should we not get a fair price for all Americans? Why should we not just open up the market as we do for oranges or pork bellies? In fact, I have told this story. People ask how did I get involved in this. The answer is kind of ironic. It was the price of hogs. People say, the price of hogs has something to do with the price of drugs? Let me explain. A number of years ago I had a meeting with some senior citizens groups in my district. They talked about their trips to Winnipeg to buy their drugs. I said, Fine. If you want to go to Winnipeg to buy your drugs, that's fine with me. That was it. I did not think much more about it. Then a few months later, the price of hogs in the United States dropped from about $50 or 50 cents a pound down to $9 or 9 cents a pound. All of a sudden our hog producers in my area were just going crazy. They could not afford to feed the pigs. They could not afford to slaughter the pigs. They were going bankrupt very fast. They were calling me saying, You've got to do something about it.”