[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2383-S2384]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   PRESCRIPTION DRUG LEGISLATION IS NEEDED TO HELP AMERICA'S ELDERLY

  Mr. MILLER. Mr. President, there is a little family restaurant in my 
hometown of Young Harris, GA, that is called Mary Ann's. It is where 
the locals gather, and often some tourists, to enjoy the north Georgia 
mountains. It is a good cross-section of folks: Blue-collar laborers 
who build houses and cut timber; teachers from the little junior 
college up the street where I once taught, and may do so again; young 
folks determined to eke out a living without having to move to Atlanta; 
retired folks who did go to the city to find work and then came back 
home as soon as they could.
  There is also a percentage of people from States such as New York and 
Michigan who dreamed of retiring to the sunshine of Florida, and did. 
Some found it a little crowded and then came on up to our area in north 
Georgia. We call them halfbacks. They retired to Florida, then moved 
halfway back home. Nothing wrong with Florida, mind you. They just 
enjoy the beauty of our mountains.
  The point I am making is this is a great cross-section of folks, 
usually equally divided between Republicans, Democrats, and 
Independents. It is where I do my focus groups, for free--or not 
exactly for free: sausage, a biscuit, and a cup of coffee.
  I suggest to both parties in Washington who pay those enormous sums 
of money for focus groups and polling that there is a much cheaper way 
to do it, and I swear I believe it is just about as accurate.
  Anyway, the point I want to make is over the recess I was in Mary 
Ann's a lot, and I processed a lot of information on the cross-tabs of 
my brain, you might say.

  One day, an old timer, so thin he was mostly breath and britches, 
followed me out into the parking lot. That is where you can have real 
private conversations, usually with one leg propped up on the bumper of 
a pickup. We have known each other all of our lives. He stared deep 
into my eyes and he said: Zell, I am worried about Hoyle.
  Hoyle Bryson is my uncle, kind of like a father since my dad died 
when I was a baby. Hoyle has always lived next door. When I was a 
little boy, he played professional baseball in the minor leagues at 
far-away and exciting places such as Tallahassee, FL; Tarboro, NC; 
Portsmouth, VA. Most of his life he was a hunter and a trapper and 
worked as a lineman for the Rural Electric Association. He is 88 years 
old now, has lived alone for over 20 years since his wife died. Once, a 
strong mountain man, he now has diabetes, prostate cancer, recently had 
angioplasty, and this week was bothered with a kidney infection. That 
once strong body is gradually growing weaker.
  So I am worried about Hoyle. I am worried about Hoyle, even though he 
still makes his own garden and keeps a passel of hound dogs, as he 
always has.
  I took him to the doctor a few weeks ago and stopped back with him at 
the drugstore to fill his prescriptions. They came to well over $100 
and will only last him a couple of weeks.
  Hoyle, as do most of our elderly, lives below what statistically is 
known as the lower poverty level threshold. This is the group that is 
hurt most by taxes and especially by rising health care costs. They are 
a valuable human resource that we must be, as my mountain friend said, 
worried about. It is not always pleasant and uplifting to see this 
segment of our society. They make us sad. Many of us--too many--even 
refuse to see them. We refuse to see them because we fear we may see 
ourselves to be the lonely elderly waiting, waiting for someone, 
anyone, to knock on their screen door and, as John Prine sings, say, 
``Hello in there.''
  The elderly are waiting for something else, too. They are waiting for 
us to do something about their needs. So far, they have waited in vain, 
each day growing older and weaker and many dying.
  Do you know who we in Washington are like? We are like those people 
in the biblical story of the Good Samaritan who passed by the man in 
the ditch and refused to help him. We are no better than they are.
  Our elderly have always been the backbone of our society, and if we 
do not give them some help soon, this Nation is going to get a 
permanent curvature of the spine.
  Twenty-five centuries ago, Plato said it best: States are as men are. 
They grow out of the character of man--and woman, I might add.
  If we in the Senate are to be called civilized, decent, God-fearing 
and God-obeying, we who are so richly blessed must meet this stark 
question of human need. We must have a meaningful prescription drug 
benefit, and we must have it soon.
  I say to my fellow Senators, let us get our priorities in order. 
Sure, it was important to pass campaign finance reform, to try to take 
big money out of the political process. But is there anyone who would 
argue it is more important than a prescription drug benefit?
  Election reform, we are going to get back on that. I am for it, too. 
We need to make the process easier, and we need to make it 
fairer. Fast-track trade, let's debate it. It is important.

  These important time-consuming, well-meaning pieces of legislation 
that will tie this body in knots and run out the clock, are any of them 
close to dealing with the clear human need of a prescription drug 
benefit for our elderly?
  If someone tuned in to the debates in this Senate since Christmas, 
they would conclude we care more about the welfare reform of the 
caribou than we do about the welfare reform of our elderly. This is a 
life-and-death issue about our fellow human beings, for goodness' sake. 
It is not about the fragility of the tundra in some far away isolated 
place only a very few people will ever see. It is about the fragility 
of a human being's last days on Earth.
  There is absolutely no reason, no reason except cheap political 
gamesmanship, that we can't have a prescription drug benefit before 
election day--no good reason, no acceptable reason at all.
  There are 11 prescription drug bills pending in this Senate today, 
all of

[[Page S2384]]

which would be better than what we have. With 54 different Senators 
listed as cosponsors, that says to me a majority of this Senate wants 
to do something and do it now. All of the budget proposals floating 
around out there include money for a prescription drug benefit.
  Both parties made this promise to our elderly in the 2000 election. 
So why are we waiting? How much longer must we wait? How long are we 
going to continue to play this nonproductive, partisan, never ending 
ping-pong game of retribution and payback that takes up so much 
valuable time and, frankly, makes us all look silly and petty? How long 
will we keep using the antiquated rules that slow down everything to a 
crippled snail's pace, that on a regular basis thwarts the clear will 
of the majority of this body and instead substitutes the tyranny of a 
minority? We should stop this dilatory dillydallying and put up a sign 
around here that says ``No Loitering.''
  We should cut down on some of this Presidential candidate posturing. 
I know you cannot do away with all of it, of course. But you want to be 
a contender? Quit preaching and preening and produce. You want the well 
off to show you the money? Show the not so well off a prescription drug 
benefit.
  To do that, you will have to say no to some of those high-priced 
political strategists, those consultants who couldn't get elected 
dogcatcher themselves, whose advice is always the same: Have an issue, 
not a result. Never compromise, never accept a half of loaf of 
anything.
  Remember FDR once said:

       Try something. If it doesn't work, try something else. But 
     for God's sake, try something.

  That is what I am trying to say. I want Hoyle and all those millions 
like him in the land of plenty who have played by the rules and worked 
hard all of their lives to have some peace and hope in the twilight 
days of their last years.
  If this so-called center of democracy keeps piddling and 
procrastinating and postponing this issue, I hope the American people 
will rise up as did those fans at that football game in Cleveland and 
run both teams off the field.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Tennessee is recognized.

                          ____________________