[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10843]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL NOT BENEFIT FROM REPUBLICAN PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I am going to make a prophecy. Next week 
we will pass a bill that will not give senior citizens economic 
security in the area of prescription drugs. Why? Very simply, because 
it is based on the theory that we will throw the old folks into the 
arms of the insurance companies who will then arm wrestle the drug 
companies down in their prices.
  If my colleagues believe that, they must have been unaware of what 
went on last night. The reason this bill is going to pass is last night 
the bill was paid; $30 million came in from the insurance companies and 
the drug companies through the Republican Party fundraiser.
  I am sure they must have sung at least one chorus of an old song we 
used to sing in the camp meetings in Illinois when I was a young kid 
called, ``Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall 
come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves.'' But the people will not 
benefit from this bill.
  It is a bill that is designed to privatize Medicare with a little 
sweetening wrapped around it called a drug benefit. The old folks will 
be watching and they are going to want us to vote ``no'' on that bill.

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