Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, for many months now so many of us Democrats here in the House have been pleading with our Republican colleagues to recognize that there is a very serious cost to the American people of prescription price gouging; such a serious matter that, overwhelmingly, in the fall, when the Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed healthcare concerns of Americans, the number one issue was soaring, unaffordable prescription drugs. We have not been very successful in getting their attention on this just to recognize the severity of the problem--not even getting to the point of agreeing on what legislative action this Congress, this administration might take in order to address this problem. We got another indication of the severity of the problem and the way that people across America are being impacted by the Republican failure to address prescription price gouging in the latest survey done this year by AARP, their RxPrice Watch report, which found the average retail price among 622 prescription medicines that are widely used by seniors more than doubled from less than $6,000 in 2006 to over $11,000 in 2013. That is an incredible increase. It is not just seniors who are impacted, but working families, people all over the United States, by the fact that prescription drug prices are rising much faster than the cost of living and other health care. Now, we have been asking for months that Republicans recognize the severity of this problem.…”