Frank Pallone

I want to praise John Kerry's selection of Senator John Edwards as his running mate. For more than 2 decades, Senator Edwards has been fighting on behalf of the little guy against America's large corporate interests. John Kerry picked the…

I have always said, and that is why I think today, June 1, is so significant, that when the public actually sees what this benefit is that the Republicans are offering them, they are just going to talk with their feet and not participate…

Reclaiming my time, there is still an investigation within the Department as to whether or not that was a violation of law, too, because the actuary is supposed to be nonpartisan and give out true figures. The fact he was told if you…

The gentleman might also want to mention the cost paid for the ads. They had an initial ad campaign that was $20 million and another one subsequent, I think another $18 million, that basically promotes the prescription drug cards. In my…

I want to point out, at that point there were a majority who voted ``no.'' It was not even like we were waiting around to see who was left to vote. Sometimes we wait to see because Members have not voted. It was 218, which is a majority…

I do not like to criticize the Republican side of the aisle unnecessarily, but I am amazed by the fact that our two colleagues who were here earlier were so convinced that other countries do not have the solution. Statements were made…

Essentially it is a lie, because it is not the truth, because they are saying that the main goal here is to save money. There is no reason to believe that. But I just go back to what my colleague from Maine said. The purpose of all this is…

Also, I do not know how the senior citizens will be able to make a decision which card to use. They have a Web site and you can go on that Website, and they will give you the different cards and tell you what is covered and what the cost…

I think one of the President's biggest mistakes over the last year was signing a so-called prescription drug bill into law which he knew would benefit the pharmaceutical companies a lot more than the millions of seniors who need help now…

I think you have it right on point that this administration simply is not capable of conducting this war. Whether you are for the war, which I voted against it, or you are against it, it does not matter. Bottom line is the administration…

I mentioned before about this op-ed with Krugman where he was quoting the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, a major publication in Israel. I just want to read that quote again in their editorial where they said, ``This isn't America; the…

I agree. And it is important for us to continue to point this out because again we had a situation where this bill, which was a bad bill with prescription drugs, would not have passed if the truth had come out. That is abundantly clear. In…

There is nothing real about this administration. They have misrepresented from the Iraq war all of the way through, the economy, the deficit, all these things are all predicated on misrepresentations. I try not to use the word 'lie,' but…

This is an abuse of power by the President and by the Republicans in the Congress. [...] So the abuse is just unbelievable, and the fact that he got the waiver and everything.

I cannot imagine that if this was World War II or another major conflict, but I will use World War II as an example, it is what we call war profiteering, and anyone who was associated with that, we have seen the old movies where there is…

The bottom line is we know that the drug companies do a lot of good things; but when they are not doing good things, we have to tell them that it is not good. Otherwise there is no end to it. I think this ad campaign is a perfect example…

One of the reasons I think it is so important for us to keep talking about this is because if the Bush administration gets away with this, where is it going to end? In other words, now they are spending $9 million on TV, $22 million total…

Or, alternatively, that they may not get a prescription drug benefit at all if they keep the traditional fee-for-service plan.

It is just amazing to think the ad campaign is not only to try to tell people that this bad bill is good, but they have to do it 2 years before it goes into effect? As the gentleman said, the only reason is they are concerned about what…

The amazing thing is we started off this evening, and I am sure we are going to hear from our colleague from Illinois who brought this to our attention, about this multi-million dollar ad program that the Health and Human Services…

We are talking about over $500 billion now for this program. Where is the money going? It is not going to the seniors. It is going to the special interests. It is going to the HMOs. It is going to the pharmaceutical companies. And now on…

The other thing, just to add to that, is that when the 17 minutes are up, because I was here, the votes were against the bill. In other words, there were 218 votes, which is a majority, against the bill. So the bill lost at that time. It…

The House passed a deeply flawed Medicare prescription drug bill by a vote of 220 to 215 at 6 a.m. Votes in the House usually last 15 minutes plus a traditional 2-minute cushion. But because the leadership did not have the votes to…

The oil contracts, they were charged a $64 million penalty, but they are making billions, almost a trillion dollars I think in terms of the amount of money they are taking in. As our colleague from Massachusetts said, they are not going to…

I just want to add that I think my colleague from Massachusetts brought up the main point, which is that the problem is that Halliburton is doing all these things, now admitting, I guess, in two or maybe three cases they have done the…