[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18435-18436]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     THE PRESIDENT'S PLAYBOOK: DENIAL, DISINFORMATION, AND DODGING 
                             RESPONSIBILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, Republican leadership in the Senate 
confirmed last week they have no intention of acting on prescription 
drug importation legislation. Senate leader Frist said there just is 
not time to take it up.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair reminds all Members not to make 
improper references to the Senate.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, it has been 400 days since a 
bipartisan majority in the House passed legislation giving Americans 
access to safe, affordable medicine from Canada and other allied 
nations, 400 days. Since then, the Senate has passed legislation 
commending a sculptor, a painter, its own staff, the nation of 
Bulgaria, and Smokey the Bear. The Senate has recognized the importance 
of motorsports. The Senate, as has the House, has spent many days 
renaming post offices and Federal buildings from sea to shining sea.
  There was time for all of those things, but for an issue as important 
to the American people as relief from the exploding price of 
prescription drugs, the other body simply could not find the time.
  This importation issue is just one example of the three Ds of the 
Bush administration's health policy playbook: denial, disinformation, 
and dodging responsibility.
  Here is one example: the Bush administration suppressed the new true 
cost of the Medicare law. The bill was originally tagged at $400 
billion. The President told us that. The President said he would not 
sign it if it cost more than that. The government's own Medicare 
actuary and the President surely knew, the President's staff knew, that 
the bill actually cost $530 billion.
  So what did they do? They suppressed it. In a nutshell, the 
President's gag order worked, the bill passed, and the President signed 
it. And do my colleagues know what we got? Seniors got a 17 percent 
increase in their premiums, the largest increase ever inflicted on 
America's senior population, simply because the President of the United 
States did not tell the truth when he signed that bill and when he 
lobbied Congress for that bill.
  Importation is another example of the Bush disinformation strategy. 
The drug industry has no better friend than President Bush. Of course 
they do not. The drug industry has given President Bush $30 million for 
his reelection, has given millions of dollars to my friends on the 
other side of the aisle. Of course President Bush will do the drug 
industry's bidding. That is why we ended up with a 17 percent increase, 
the largest premium increase ever inflicted on America's seniors.
  Dodging responsibility is the third play in the Bush administration's 
health policy playbook. The best example is a 17 percent increase. The 
President announced the 17 percent increase on Friday afternoon before 
Labor Day. The press had gone home, people had turned their TV sets off 
if they were watching any of these announcements, and the President 
thought nobody would notice. Well, people certainly noticed. But the 
President then said, because people did notice, he said, it is not 
really my fault. I was the hapless victim, he said, of a formula 
written into the law.
  It happened to be the law that he pushed through Congress and that he 
signed, the Medicare law. That is like stomping on the gas pedal and 
blaming the engine for getting a speeding ticket.
  President Bush championed the Medicare bill. He twisted arms. We 
remember in this Chamber, my friends on the other side of the aisle 
remember this, we had a 3-hour vote starting at 3 in the morning, and 
it took until 6 in the morning. One Member was bribed on the House 
floor. Member after Member after Member had his arm twisted, her arm 
twisted, yet the President says it is not my fault that we had this 17 
percent premium increase.
  The fact is, the President is responsible for that 17 percent premium 
increase, and the President needed to get that increase so that the 
insurance companies and the drug companies could get their money out of 
the bill.
  So basically what happened is the money is taken out of seniors' 
pockets; that is why we have this record 17 percent premium increase 
for every one of America's seniors. The money is taken out of the 
pockets of seniors; and then that money is taken together, billions of 
dollars, and put into the coffers of the drug companies and the 
insurance companies, direct subsidies for the drug companies, increased 
profits to the insurance companies, and then it comes full circle, and 
those companies then put millions of dollars in President Bush's 
campaign, in Majority

[[Page 18436]]

Leader Delay's campaign, in the campaigns of Republican leadership in 
the House, in the other body, and for the President of the United 
States.
  Mr. Speaker, it is scandalous that seniors are inflicted with a 17 
percent, a record increase in premiums so that George Bush could have 
his campaign funded by the drug companies and funded by the insurance 
companies. It is wrong. They should be ashamed.

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