[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26004]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon and earlier in the Special 
Orders, our colleague, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton), talked 
about a meeting that we had, a forum that we conducted today in Boston, 
Massachusetts. We had about seven or eight Members of the House, and we 
had a forum talking about the issue of prescription drugs and how much 
Americans pay for prescription drugs relative to what industrialized 
countries around the world pay for those same drugs. It was sort of 
appropriate that we had this forum in Boston; and I observed at the 
beginning of the meeting that a little over 200 years ago there were 
patriots who began to throw tea in Boston Harbor because a king in 
England had imposed a half-penny tax on tea, and they were mad as hell 
and they were not going to take it anymore. That same spirit of that 
Boston Tea Party was alive today and that spirit is growing.
  At that forum we had Governor Pawlenty of the State of Minnesota. I 
have to tell my colleagues I was so proud of him because he outlined 
the plan that he has for Minnesotans to allow them to have access to 
world-class drugs at world market prices. Now, he did not put a number 
on it, but my estimate is that Minnesotans will save at least $50 
million by simply opening up markets as we do with virtually every 
other product. He also said in his remarks that the States are the 
laboratories of democracy and that it is time for the States to take 
the leadership and demonstrate what can be done in terms of opening up 
markets and saving consumers billions.
  We also had the Attorney General from the State of Massachusetts. He 
made a very good point, that as these big pharmaceutical companies now 
are reaching out and saying we are not going to ship as many drugs to 
Canada, he reminded us and them that there are antitrust laws on the 
books and if the Federal Government will not enforce them, then the 
States will.
  We also had representatives from Governor Blagojevich from the State 
of Illinois who talked about their plan and his plan and how he 
believes that they can save the State of Illinois $91 million. That is 
$91 million that can be spent on children. That is $91 million that can 
be spent on firefighters and police officers to keep the State safer.
  We also had Dr. Steve Schondelmeir, who is a pharmacist himself, 
teaches pharmacology at the University of Minnesota. He estimated that 
Americans next year will spend at least $220 billion on prescription 
drugs. He went on to say that he believed that if you simply opened up 
markets, that markets would begin to level. He agrees with me or I 
agree with him that the goal is not for Americans to go to other 
countries to buy prescription drugs; the goal is to open up markets, 
and markets level. Prices here in the United States would come down at 
least 30 percent.
  Now, I am not good in mathematics, but 30 percent of $220 billion is 
over $60 billion a year. That would be the largest tax cut we could 
ever give the American people. If the goal of the tax cut is to allow 
Americans to keep and spend more of their own money, then market access 
certainly should be part of that equation.
  We also had Dr. Elizabeth Wenner, who has her own program going in 
the State of Vermont to encourage the patients there in her clinics to 
buy their drugs and make it easier for them to legally and safely buy 
those drugs from pharmacists across the border in Canada. She has 
numbers to demonstrate how much their patients have saved; and the 
average, believe it or not, is over 60 percent.
  Then we had Mayor Albano, the mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts. He 
began his voluntary plan for city employees there and he has only been 
operating for a few months, and his estimates are that they have saved 
$600,000. We are talking about real money, I say to my colleagues. It 
is not just about seniors; it is about everybody.
  Victor Hugo said, more powerful than an invading army is an idea 
whose time has come. I do not know what is going to happen in the 
conference committee, but I know this: you cannot hold back an idea 
whose time has come.

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