Chuck Schumer: “I am glad to take the floor today because we are beginning a historic and very important debate on the issue of the…”

“I am glad to take the floor today because we are beginning a historic and very important debate on the issue of the accessibility and the cost of prescription drugs. It is going to be a very important 2 weeks. I, first, thank the majority leader for giving us that kind of time. This is not an issue that should be dealt with quickly. It is an important issue. It affects all of our constituencies. And there are many different sides to it. Anyone who thinks the issue is totally cut and dry is mistaken. We have had great advances in our health care system. Many of them are due to these prescription drugs. We knock our health care system. It is easy to do. But we often forget about its successes. I point to my childhood where, in my neighborhood, Brooklyn, my friends would get on their bicycles and come to my house on Wednesday afternoons, and they would park their bicycles in the front and walk to the backyard and push their heads up against the window of our kitchen because sitting in our kitchen every Wednesday afternoon was something of a curiosity. It was my great-grandmother, and she was 81. Most children in the neighborhood had never seen someone over 80. And she was billed as: ``Come see the oldest lady in the world.'' The kids from the neighborhood would come around and look at her. And God bless her, she lived a long, tough life.…”