Deborah Koff Ross: “In 2001, the Republican Congresswoman, the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson), and I offered up a bipartisan plan…”

“In 2001, the Republican Congresswoman, the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson), and I offered up a bipartisan plan that would truly modernize Medicare to include medicine for our seniors, that recovered 80 percent of the cost of prescription drugs for our seniors, while taking on the big drug manufacturers, and the Republicans told us that we could not afford it. They said we could not afford $750 billion over 10 years. But what has happened since then? They passed a $350 billion tax cut for the wealthy, and now they are proposing a $400 billion major prescription drug plan. I was not real good in math in high school, but I think I can figure that one out. That totals $750 billion. Two years later, we are getting a plan that does not even kick in until 2006. Our plan would be in effect today. Seniors get $1,080 worth of help on the first $5,100 worth of medicine they need every year, and the Republicans even had the nerve at the urging of the big drug manufacturers to put language in the bill that says the Federal Government shall be prohibited from negotiating with the big drug manufacturers to bring down the high cost of prescription drugs. This is a bad bill. This is a bill that does not even fit our seniors, only the big drug manufacturers.”