Political Quotes

“I rise to discuss the new FDA Commissioner, or, more specifically, the role that the agency must play in tackling one of the biggest health crises of our day, one that I have personal experience with. Unless we act decisively, this crisis will only grow in terms of the staggering human and economic costs in the future. That crisis is the Alzheimer's epidemic in this Nation. The reason I am talking about Alzheimer's is it is truly a terrible condition that affects patients, their families, and communities across the Nation. I learned firsthand about Alzheimer's disease when my mother was robbed of many of her Golden Years at a relatively early age, in her seventies. Currently, more than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's, including an estimated 160,000 in my own State of North Carolina. Estimates project the number of Alzheimer's patients to grow to 16 million by 2050, with an annual cost of more than $1 trillion to the healthcare system. Alzheimer's disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. It is a current and growing problem. It is the only top 10 disease for causes of death that cannot be prevented. It can't be cured. We can't even slow the pace of the disease. Simply put, we need a war on Alzheimer's disease like we have on cancer. As a country, we must take the fight to this awful disease.…”