Political Quotes

“early Friday morning, under cover of night, the Republican plan to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit was forced through the Committee on Energy and Commerce on strict party lines. The prescription drug proposal made by the Republican leadership in Congress is so farfetched and so inadequate that it is an insult to the seniors it alleges to help. This legislation calls for private insurance companies to deliver drug coverage, and the coverage is minimal. We sought to improve the bill, but our efforts were stymied by a coalition of the Republican leadership and their corporate sponsors, the brand name drug industry. Democrats insist that any prescription drug plan for seniors should be administered through Medicare, the program seniors know and trust. We have insisted the benefits be at least as generous as the coverage enjoyed by Members of Congress, and we sought to lower drug prices, ending drug industry patent abuses and enhancing competition in the prescription drug marketplace. The need for a prescription drug benefit under Medicare is undisputed. Twelve million American seniors lack any form of drug coverage. This situation is made worse by the fact that American seniors and others without drug coverage pay the highest prices in the world for their prescriptions. This is not the first time Republicans have attempted to capitalize on the need of America's seniors for a drug benefit but is the most blatant.”