[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 52 (Wednesday, April 21, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2230-H2231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MISTAKES THE PRESIDENT HAS MADE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 8 days ago at the Presidential news 
conference, only the third he had done in prime time since he has been 
President, the President was asked just sort of an obvious question 
that we all deal with from time to time in our lives, political or not, 
tell us about one of the biggest mistakes you have made.
  The President kind of looked a little deer-in-the-headlights and he 
said, ``I am sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of 
this press conference, but with all of the pressure of trying to come 
up with an answer, it just hasn't yet.''
  We would today like to try to help the President, not because we want 
to criticize President Bush, but because we want to help him learn from 
his mistakes.
  We see several of the mistakes here, from veterans cuts, to trickle-
down tax

[[Page H2231]]

cuts for the wealthy, to trade that the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. 
DeFazio) talked about, to helping keep our soldiers as safe as possible 
that the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) talked about.
  I want to talk for a bit about Medicare, not the fact that the bill, 
they told us it would cost $400 billion, it will cost $534 billion. 
That was sort of a purposeful mistake from the President. Not about 
Medicare privatization, that mistake. Not about the gap in coverage, 
that if you have $5,000 in drug costs, the government only pays $1,000 
of it, you have to pay $4,000 out of pocket. The mistake I want to talk 
about is not even the fact that the drug and insurance companies wrote 
that legislation.
  What I want to talk about is the specific prohibition in the bill 
that clearly the drug industry, the President at the behest of the drug 
industry, inserted into the bill that prohibits the government from 
negotiating the price of prescription drugs.
  Now understand, the Canadians pay a lot less than we do for 
prescription drugs because the Canadian Government negotiates directly 
with the drug company on behalf of 29 million citizens of Canada to get 
the best price. But this legislation, written by the drug companies, 
excuse me, written by the President, this legislation expressly 
prohibits our government on behalf of 39 million Medicare 
beneficiaries, prohibits our government from negotiating the best price 
for our Medicare beneficiaries. That is why we pay so much for our 
prescription drugs.
  Now, when the Architect of the Capitol bought the carpet in this 
room, he did not take the manufacturer's word that a fair price would 
impair carpet fiber research and then pay whatever the carpet company 
wanted. When the Park Service buys rangers' uniforms, it does not take 
just the first bid, no matter how expensive.
  But with drugs, the President and his allies in the drug industry and 
his friends that run the House of Representatives, the Republican 
leadership, they say the government must pay any price the drug 
industry wants to charge. That is why Lipitor costs $763 here, but $438 
in Canada. That is why Fosamax costs $797 here, an anti-osteoporosis 
drug, mostly for women, but only $323 in Canada. That is why Tamoxifen, 
a breast cancer drug, costs nine times in the United States what it 
costs in France, even though U.S. taxpayers paid for much of the 
research through the National Institutes of Health to develop those 
drugs.
  Now, this policy, this mistake, this mistake on Medicare that the 
President made that says we are not going to negotiate price, we are 
going to let the drug companies charge whatever they want, this mistake 
is a joke on the American people; and the drug companies are laughing 
all the way to the bank.
  Perhaps the reason for this Presidential mistake, the Medicare 
prescription drug Presidential mistake, is the fact that the millions 
of dollars have come from the drug industry to the Republican Party, 
and the word on the street is the drug industry is going to give 
President Bush's reelection $100 million.

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