[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 94 (Tuesday, June 24, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     HOUSE TO SPEND $400 BILLION FOR FLAWED PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, how can you spend $400 billion and not 
provide a decent Medicare prescription drug benefit? Well, it is an 
excellent question, but the Republicans have come up with a formula.
  First, you underwrite the profits of the private insurance industry. 
Yes, there will be subsidies to the private insurance industry in this 
bill, trying to drive people out of Medicare; and you do that because 
they lost a bunch of money on crummy investments, and we have to help 
out their bottom line. Well, we can understand that; they are big 
campaign contributors.
  Secondly, how else? Well, overall, number one, do nothing about the 
extortion it costs to prescription drugs in the United States. Do not 
allow the imports or the reimportation of American-manufactured drugs. 
Do not allow the people on Medicare to be organized into a group to 
drive down the price of these prescription drugs. No. Because actually, 
the pharmaceutical industry are bigger campaign contributors to the 
Republicans than the insurance industry. So we are going to spend $400 
billion to provide a benefit nobody understands that is going to be 
pretty parsimonious.
  We could do better. We could take on the pharmaceutical industry, and 
we can forget about giving a subsidy to the private insurance industry; 
and for $400 billion, we could provide a meaningful prescription drug 
benefit that seniors would enjoy and it would help with their health. 
But that is not where the majority is going in this House of 
Representatives.

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