Robin Carnahan: “Seniors' ability to afford prescription drugs is a very serious problem. Too many seniors have to make a painful choice…”

“Seniors' ability to afford prescription drugs is a very serious problem. Too many seniors have to make a painful choice between paying for medicine or paying for rent and food. I have heard from many Missouri constituents on this issue. It is time that Congress enacts a comprehensive prescription drug benefit for all seniors. This is why I am cosponsoring and supporting the amendment to the Senate budget resolution that would create a voluntary prescription drug benefit for all seniors through the Medicare program. The Democratic amendment makes an investment in an affordable, accessible, and meaningful prescription drug benefit for all beneficiaries. Instead of making a real investment in a Medicare prescription drug benefit, the Republican budget resolution invests only $153 billion over 10 years in this critical initiative. This investment is nowhere near sufficient to meet the need. The size of the Republican leadership's tax cut would make it impossible to provide the additional investment needed to meet the demand of this important national priority. The Democratic amendment would reduce the tax cut by $158 billion over 10 years and invest a total of $311 billion over 10 years in a Medicare prescription drug benefit for all beneficiaries. The Democratic amendment to the budget resolution proposes a prescription drug benefit for all Medicare beneficiaries that does not use funds from the Medicare or Social Security surpluses.”