[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8264]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    PRESCRIPTION DRUG DISCOUNT CARDS

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Congressional Research 
Service concluded that the Bush administration broke the law when it 
refused to allow a career civil servant to be honest with Members of 
this House as to the true cost of the Republican prescription drug 
bill.
  Since the very beginning of the prescription drug debate, President 
Bush and this Republican Congress have had a win-at-all-cost attitude 
about their prescription drug legislation. The sad fact is that the 
true losers in this scandal are the senior citizens, the very people 
Republicans claim they are trying to help.
  This week, seniors nationwide will begin to see how ineffective and 
confusing the Republican prescription drug legislation is. This week, 
seniors have the opportunity to sign up for new prescription drug cards 
that will provide supposed savings on prescription drug costs.
  But, Mr. Speaker, while some seniors will be able to save on their 
medications when they use these cards, many will not. In fact, I 
believe that these drug cards are nothing more than window dressing, a 
weak attempt by the Bush administration to couch the ineffectiveness of 
this Medicare law.

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