[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14404-14405]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      A PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFIT

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Madam President, since we are, for the moment, 
stalemated here, I rise to express my strong commitment to our moving 
forward on a prescription drug benefit. Obviously, we will not be able 
to do it now, but people in the country are certainly interested in the 
politics that speak to the center of their lives.
  I want to see us eventually pass a bill that calls for health 
security for all citizens. Before we do that, we ought to have a decent 
prescription drug benefit. I recommend to my colleagues a Sunday story 
in the New York Times, front-page story by Robert Perrin. I forget the 
name of the coauthor; I apologize.
  The gist of the piece was that it is going to be very difficult, 
within the $300 billion allowance over the next 10 years because of the 
tax cuts, to have a benefit that is going to work for a lot of elderly 
people. If the premiums are too high and the copays are too high and 
the deductibles are too high, many people can't afford it. Quite to the 
contrary of the stereotype of greedy geezers traveling all over the 
country playing at the most swank golf courses, the income profile of 
elderly people is not high at all. Disproportionately, it is really 
low- and moderate-income people.
  So, A, people will not be able to afford the benefit. And then, B, if 
we don't deal with the catastrophic expenses--that is to say, after 
$2,000 a year, people should not be paying any more additional 
expenses--then it is going to be a proposal or a piece of legislation 
that is going to invite mutiny. People are going to say: We thought 
when you campaigned that you made a commitment to us. We thought you 
made a commitment to affordable prescription drugs. But you are not 
willing to do it.
  I have introduced a piece of legislation called MEDS. At a very 
minimum, we are going to have to understand $300 billion over 10 years 
will not do the job. We have to understand that this tax cut that has 
boxed us all in is a huge mistake. We are going to have to be 
intellectually honest with the people in the country, and we are going 
to have to find our courage. Frankly, I predict we will revisit--the 
sooner, the better--this tax cut proposal. It is too much Robin Hood in 
reverse, too much going to the very top of the population. And now we 
are without the revenue and the resources to do well for people with an 
affordable prescription drug. ``Affordable,'' that is what everyone 
campaigned on.
  In addition, yesterday Senator Rockefeller, chairing the Veterans' 
Affairs Committee, had Secretary Principi come in. He is a good man. I 
have a great deal of respect for him. I think he cares deeply about 
veterans. He was talking about prescription drug benefits within the 
VA. I asked him several times whether or not he felt that their global 
budget and the discount they insist on has enabled them

[[Page 14405]]

to hold down the cost. The copay for veterans for prescription drugs 
right now is $2. He said: Absolutely.
  Maybe what we are going to have to do--there are Republicans who will 
agree; I hope all the Democrats agree--is also have some cost 
containment. We have 40 million Medicare recipients. I suppose we might 
be able to say that 40 million Medicare recipients represent a 
bargaining unit and we want a discount from these pharmaceutical 
companies that are making excessive, obscene profits.
  There are a lot of issues people care about. There are many issues on 
which we need to move forward. In particular, in order to do well by 
people, we are going to have to be not only intellectually honest, but 
we will have to have some political courage--political courage to talk 
about the ways in which this tax cut bill puts us in a straitjacket and 
amounts to a miserable failure from the point of view of our being able 
to do well for people and from the point of view of our being willing 
to live up to our promises. Everybody who ran for office talked about 
an affordable prescription drug benefit.
  In addition, we are going to have to challenge some of the profits of 
the pharmaceutical industry and have some cost containment so this 
works.

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