STATEMENT:   –  Madam Speaker, this could have been a great day in the U.S. House of Representatives.  We could be showing the American people that health care is not a partisan issue, but we are not.

Instead, the bipartisan vote today will be in opposition to H.R. 3962. 

We have missed an opportunity for consensus, to improve access and save money for taxpayers and patients alike.  Americans pay the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world, and this bill binds us to that fate.

For every member of Congress, there are two-and-a-half lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry.  In the first half of 2009, the drug companies spent $609,000 per day on lobbying expenses.  We have missed an opportunity to tell drug companies that they no longer set the agenda in Congress.

We have missed an opportunity to put the interests of Americans with and without health insurance ahead of the special interests.

We have missed an opportunity to end the pill-splitting, skipped doses and unfilled prescriptions that plague Americans who can’t afford the medicine their doctor prescribes. 

This bill agrees to shift those costs from patients to taxpayers and from this generation to the next.  This bill trades affordable generics for pricey name-brand drugs.  This bill intentionally makes quality care more expensive for our nation as a whole, and it’s wrong to leave hundreds of billions in savings on the table.