[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 68 (Thursday, May 8, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H3834]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about an issue 
that I have talked about on this House floor before, and that is the 
high cost of prescription drugs here in the United States compared to 
the rest of the industrialized world, but before I do I want to just 
come back to something my colleague just was talking about in terms of 
the tax relief.
  I am going to support the tax relief package because I understand 
that there are only three things people can do with their money. One is 
they can spend it. Two, they can save it, or three, they can send it to 
the government in the form of taxes. They can only spend it, save it or 
pay taxes. That is the only three things people can do, and we know 
that when the economy is soft, at least most of us believe, that if we 
allow people to keep their own money, that will grow the economy faster 
than having them send it into the Federal Government.
  I want to talk about something else tonight because cutting taxes is 
not the only way that we can help the economy, and on this first chart 
I say if we want to allow Americans to keep and spend over $600 billion 
during the next 10 years, here is a good place to start.
  We have got the picture of some prescription drug containers. That is 
right, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the CBO, American 
seniors will spend over $1.8 trillion on prescription drugs over the 
next 10 years. A conservative estimate would be that we could save 35 
percent by allowing free markets to work. Thirty-five percent of $1.8 
trillion equates to $630 billion. Now, if my colleagues doubt that, 
just look at this chart, and this chart is available on my Web site at 
gil.house.gov, and just check the number for yourself, but let me pull 
out a few of these.
  A common drug we all know about is Cipro. It is made by a German 
company named Bayer. They also make aspirin. Cipro in the United 
States, it sells for $87.99. This is according to the Life Extension 
Foundation, but on average, last year, Cipro sold in the United States, 
a 30-day supply, for about $87.99. The average price in Canada for 
those same drugs, $53.55 and in Europe, $40.75, less than half the 
price in Europe for the same drug.
  Let us look at GLUCOPHAGE, a very commonly prescribed drug for 
diabetes, in many respects a miracle drug. In the United States, 
average price for 30-day supply, $124.65. That same drug sells in 
Canada for $26.47, and in Europe the average price is $22.
  We go on down the list, we look at drugs like Premarin, Premarin in 
the United States, $55; in Europe, $8.95. Zocor, very commonly 
prescribed drug, today $123 in the United States; $28 in Europe. Do the 
arithmetic. I think we are being very conservative.
  At the bottom of this chart I have something from one of my favorite 
Presidents, President Ronald Reagan. He said, ``Markets are more 
powerful than armies.''
  Tax cuts are great, but if we want to help seniors lower prescription 
drug prices and allow Americans to keep and spend $630 billion of their 
money, let us open markets now. Americans deserve world class drugs at 
world market prices.
  I was in Germany not too long ago, and we actually bought some drugs. 
This is a very commonly prescribed, a very effective drug against 
women's breast cancer. This drug was bought at the Munich airport 
pharmacy for $59.05 American. This same box of drugs bought here in 
Washington, D.C., sells for $366. What makes matters worse, this drug 
was developed, almost all of the research expenses were paid for by the 
American taxpayers. I think Americans ought to pay their fair share for 
the price of research and development for all of these miracle drugs. I 
think most Americans believe that, but we should not be required to 
subsidize the starving Swiss.
  The time has come to open up markets, to give Americans access to 
world class drugs at world class prices. We can do that in the next 
several weeks. I need my colleagues' help. Let us all work together to 
make certain that Americans have access to those drugs at prices that 
they can afford.

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