[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17977]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         PRESCRIPTION POLITICS

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, the President has proposed that 
the Medicare program provide free drug prescription. Now anyone with a 
basic understanding of how markets work knows that the President's 
proposal will increase demand and ultimately drive up the price of 
prescription drugs. This in turn will cause insurance rates to rise for 
everyone who has prescription drug coverage and further worsen the 
burden of those who do not have drug coverage.
  As the price of drugs rise, Medicare's financial position will 
worsen, and this will lead to higher tax costs for everyone and 
pressure from the government to put price controls on prescription 
drugs. This will lead to shortages of prescription drugs and a slowdown 
in research for new and better drugs. Eventually bureaucrats in 
Washington will be telling seniors what prescription drugs they are 
going to be allowed to have.
  Now the President is proposing free prescription drugs because at 
first glance it appears to give seniors something for nothing. But he
and his advisers know as well as I do the harm that it will do seniors
and the rest of us. He is proposing this to play politics, to try to
thwart tax cuts, and try to have a bigger, more powerful government.

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