Frank Pallone

I thank the gentleman. The whole goal of this Special Order is to say do not mislead us. If we have a State of the Union Address tonight, be honest where we are going, what we are going to accomplish and what it is going to cost. We are…

My concern, and I have shared this concern with many of my Democratic colleagues, is that the President constantly comes forward and talks about what he is going to do to address the Nation's problems, to deal with the economy, for…

I have been hesitating to talk about whether the war is just or necessary, but I think the bottom line is if it is going to be fought or whether it is going to be fought, we have to think about the costs of it. This President's economic…

The other thing is that in the last few weeks I was hearing from some of our Republican colleagues about how maybe we did not even need to do it, to extend unemployment compensation because it has been going on too long, almost like it is…

The other problem that we have too, which we really did not dwell on too much but I think it is important, is that it really was disgraceful that the Republicans, who are in the majority, with the President went home after December 28 and…

That is a very good point. And the other thing too is that everyone is sort of assuming that this recession is at its worst and somehow we are now going to turn it around; but if the government goes in the wrong direction with President…

When it comes to prescription drugs, we need a benefit program under Medicare for senior citizens and those eligible for Medicare; and at the same time, we need to address the issue of costs and bring down costs for all Americans because…

My understanding, I hope I am not wrong, was that the plane that went down in Pennsylvania was actually headed for California, so there were probably some of the constituents from the district of the gentlewoman from California (Ms…

We do not because we have a monopoly. Basically, the patent structure is giving a particular company a monopoly for that particular drug for a period of time. Unless we allow generics or others to come in, which they obviously try to…

I know he was there at the Committee on Commerce markup the day that we had to adjourn so that the chairman, the Republican chairman of the committee and other Republican members could go to the big fundraiser; and at the end, at 5…

I have said it so many times, and the gentleman basically touched upon it as well tonight, that it is not only that seniors deserve a prescription drug benefit, but it also makes sense from a financial point of view. Think about the fact…

I have to say during that Committee on Energy and Commerce markup, there were two things that we realized over and over again. One is the Republicans were never going to put this program under Medicare because they are ideologically…

I totally agree that the whole research component is something that we have to continue. Certainly my home State has been, for many years, a leader in research amongst pharmaceuticals. But what we are seeing is that so much of the price…

I will just say one more time as Democrats, we are determined first to address the issue of drug prices; and, secondly, to provide a Medicare benefit, a guaranteed Medicare benefit for all seniors. We are going to be unveiling our Medicare…

If I could just reclaim the time, I know that statistic is accurate. I have seen it many times, but I think a lot of times people do not realize, because of the fact that so much research has been done and all these miracle drugs have been…

If I could just interrupt, I wanted my colleague to reiterate that point again about how many different drugs the average senior takes in the course of the year. I think a lot of the people, particularly younger people, have no idea how…

The point is that we may find that when we do, and hopefully certainly if the Democrats have their choice in the matter, we will have prescription drugs under Medicare, and we probably will find that there is a tremendous savings to…

As I said before, my intention is not to denigrate this bill. I believe that this is a very important bill. I understand the comments that were made by my colleague from Nevada earlier about why it is important for these two towns to get…

I believe why the Republicans are having difficulty coming up with a plan and probably have postponed this at least until after Memorial Day if not indefinitely is because they have insisted that if they are going to pay for it, they have…

The brand-name drug companies always say that they need to charge more because of research and development, when in reality what we know is a lot of the extra cost is just for advertising so that they can advertise the name-brand drug…

I agree, and I am very fearful about what the gentlewoman says, which is that essentially with what the Republican leadership is doing here, they just want to bring up a bill so they can say they passed something, send it over to the other…

The gentlewoman is right. They may not be able to muster the votes in committee and they may just take it directly to the floor, which is a huge travesty because there will be no debate other than on the floor, which is not the way it is…

It is just so important in the course of the debate on this, if we get to it in the next week or two, that we stress that, that the preventative aspect of prescription drugs means cost savings. There will be some people who will say that…

And instead, overall, the cost of paying for the prescription drugs is actually going to save the Federal Government a lot of money. Our problem is that when we make that case, we are not necessarily able to give an exact dollar figure…

And the bottom line is, I guess being a little crass talking about the money aspect, is that the Federal Government is paying. With the way the system is set up, the Federal Government is paying for hospital care and paying for a lot of…