[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16271]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                     PRESCRIPTION DRUG LEGISLATION

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Madam Speaker, as Congress considers the prescription drug 
legislation today, I think it is important for the American people to 
remember a few simple facts. This would be the biggest new Federal 
entitlement since 1965 when Medicare was created. Medicare currently 
costs seven and a half times what this Congress said it would cost when 
they invented it.
  Seventy-six percent of seniors in America today already have 
prescription drug coverage and according to the CBO under some versions 
of this legislation more than a third of those Americans who enjoy 
coverage from a private employer from whom they have retired could lose 
that coverage.
  If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Let us 
not in this Congress today sow the seeds to destroy the foundation of a 
free market system by creating a universal drug benefit in Medicare. 
The answer is the reforms the President called for giving Americans the 
same choices that the Members of Congress have. It is not to create a 
massive new Federal entitlement.

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