Frank Pallone: “I do not have them with me, but in the last 6 months we have seen a lot of stocks tumble, generally in Internet and…”

“I do not have them with me, but in the last 6 months we have seen a lot of stocks tumble, generally in Internet and other areas. The drug stocks have stayed pretty good, primarily because they are making record profits. We are capitalists in America. And we do not have a problem with people making money, but they are making money at the expense of these seniors who cannot afford to pay for these prescription drugs. And as the gentlewoman says, it is a life-or-death situation. During the course of the last Presidential campaign, as well as congressional races, we saw the current President, as well as many of our Republican colleagues, run on a platform that they were going to address prescription drugs and have some kind of benefit. We are not seeing it. At one point, the President said that he wanted to do a low-income benefit. We are not sure if that is what he ultimately will say that he wants the Congress to do. At this point, I wish he would do anything. The idea of doing a low-income benefit is not what I am hearing from my constituents. The people that are coming to me are not the people that are eligible for Medicaid, but the people in the middle-income bracket that do not have a benefit because the HMO does not provide it, or they want to buy some Medigap which does not cover it. They are going without.…”