Charles Skelton: “my fellow Missourian, Mark Twain, once said, ``The more you explain it to me, the more I don't understand it.'' And that…”

“my fellow Missourian, Mark Twain, once said, ``The more you explain it to me, the more I don't understand it.'' And that is where we are on this rule; in particular not allowing some amendments, including my amendment which would be very helpful to the families of those in uniform, to be in order. Thus, I rise in strong opposition to the rule. Let me speak about my amendment first. It reduces the copay of the servicemembers and their families for prescription drugs. Currently, there is a $3 copay charge for generic drugs and a $9 copay for name- brand drugs. Under the bill, it zeros out mail-order orders, which is fine in some cases, but increases the generic drugs to $6, and increases name brand to $16. You have to say that is not a lot, but if you are a corporal with three children that get sick and you have to multiply the $16 times one or two or three times when you have serious illness in your family, it is going to cost an awful lot more. That is why it is important that we do our very best to take care of the troops. This is not brain surgery. This is helping the troops in some small, positive, decent way. And, you know, this amendment was not made in order. I have to compliment the bipartisanship of the base bill. I am proud of it. Chairman Hunter did a good job in working on that, and we worked our will on some of the amendments, including the one I offered. It only lost by two votes, 28 for it and 30 against it.…”