There is hope coming for prescription consumers

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service


Today in a press conference held by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) an announcement was made about the introduction of  a drug importation legislation that will reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States.  The “Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act” the Senators stated will bring consumers immediate relief and will force the pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices in the United States.

The bill, which is the same as last year’s proposal by President Obama, will allow U.S. drug wholesalers and licensed pharmacies to import FDA-approved medications from Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and Japan. The costs in these countries, which are 35 to 55 percent lower than in the U.S. will allow Americans to benefit from these prices also. The legislation only applies to FDA-approved prescription drugs produced in FDA-approved plants from countries with the same safety standards. 

At the conference Senator Dorgan pointed out a comparison between the drug Lipitor that is made in Ireland which gets distributed to both Canada and the United States. “I have in fact two bottles here, the only difference is in color, one is red and one is blue...The only difference is the U.S. consumer gets to pay more than twice as much for the identical pill put in the same bottle. That’s unfair we believe.”

Senator Stabenow stated “This is not like buying a pair of shoes or buying some other commodity when you cant get your medicine, it literally is life threatening so this is a very serious issue for people and we can make a dramatic difference by passing this legislation.”

Senator Dorgan said that he is confident that President Obama and his administration will support this bill because Obama introduced the exact piece of legislation last year. “He and his chief of staff co-sponsored this identical bill...You would expect a President that signed up as a member of senate for this identical bill to support it as he already has done in his budget message.” Dorgan concluded. 

McCain and Feingold tackle pork reform

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Today Senator John McCain (R-Ariz), Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis) and Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis) spoke of their plans to reintroduce their version of the line item veto bill. Feingold said that the bill would allow the President to mark certain earmarks for reconsideration, have it sent back to Congress, and have each marked spending allocation voted on individually. If either chamber votes against rescinding the money by a simple majority vote, then the project would be funded.

The Supreme Court had previously struck down as unconstitutional McCain’s previous attempt to introduce a line item veto. McCain said that he wants to “get around” that decision by the Court through a new legislative effort, which McCain said would be fully constitutional.

All three members of Congress felt that this would be an important step towards reforming wasteful pork. Ryan said that this would bring accountability and common sense to the earmark process. McCain said that he anticipates it being difficult to pass, but Feingold said that this bill is important, because earmark money is “real money” that comes out of taxpayers pockets. Ryan went on to say that this is not a Republican or Democratic issue, but a “good government issue”.

Obama's new strategy will leave Iraq to be responsible

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

By August 31, 2010 the U.S. combat mission in Iraq will end.

Today at a Press Conference held at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, President Obama addressed his new strategy to end the war in Iraq.

President Obama said that his new strategy would end the war by working on transitioning Iraqis to full responsibility. “To achieve that goal, we will work to promote an Iraqi government that is just, representative, and accountable, and that provides neither support nor safe-haven to terrorists...America’s men and women in uniform, so many of you, fought block by block, province by province, year after year, to give the Iraqis this chance to choose a better future. Now, we must ask the Iraqi people to seize it.”

The first part of Obama’s strategy is to responsibly remove our combat brigades from Iraq. “As we carry out this drawdown, my highest priority will be the safety and security of our troops and civilians in Iraq.” Obama said that once the U.S. has removed combat brigades the next mission is to change from combat to supporting the Iraqi government and its security forces. “As I have long said, we will retain a transitional force to carry out three distinct functions: training, equipping, and advising Iraqi security forces as they remain non sectarian; conducting targeted counter-terrorism missions; and protecting our ongoing civilian and military efforts within Iraq.”

The second part of the strategy is to sustain diplomacy between U.S. and Iraq but Obama stated that since Iraq is a sovereign country, America cannot, and should not, take their place. “Diplomacy and assistance is also required to help the millions of displaced Iraqis. These men, women and children are a living consequence of this war and a challenge to stability in the region, and they must become a part of Iraq’s reconciliation and recovery.”

The third part of the strategy would be to help establish productive and normalized relationships with the Middle East region. “Going forward, the United States will pursue principled and sustained engagement with all of the nations in the region, and that will include Iran and Syria.”

Obama also spoke about working on the United States’ relationship with Iraq as well. “Our nations have known difficult times together. But ours is a bond forged by shared bloodshed, and countless friendships among our people. We Americans have offered our most precious resource, our young men and women, to work with you to rebuild what was destroyed by despotism...The United States pursues no claim on your territory or your resources...Going forward we can build a lasting relationship founded upon mutual interests and mutual respect as Iraq takes its rightful place in the community of nations.”

Obama went on to honor U.S. soldiers for their sacrifice and talked about implementing a 21st century GI Bill, and identifying and treating wounds of the war like post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury that many soldiers endure after. “Your sacrifice should challenge all of us, every single American, to ask what we can do to be better citizens.”

Boehner: President makes Bush look like a piker

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service
At a weekly press session, John Boehner (R-OH) says that there has been too much Republican spending over the last few years but, "if you begin to look at what has happened over the last month, and what's being proposed in the budget, the President is beginning to make President Bush look like a piker."

Hoyer: Conference Committee will be a “consensus seeking process”

While speaking at a pen and pad session on Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer stated that the Conference Committee on the Economic Stimulus package is going to be about seeking consensus. Since the Senate amended the economic recovery bill which came out of the House, the House and Senate need to settle on a final version in a Conference Committee. Hoyer would not specify what the House’s priorities in the Conference Committee would be, but said that he hopes to pick up votes in the House. He continued that he hopes Republicans in the Senate will be willing to compromise further, because they have been “gambling” with America’s future, and have been more concerned about rebuilding the Republican Party than in rebuilding the economy. Hoyer said he has not spoken with Senators Spector, Snowe, or Collins, the Senate Republicans who supported the bill, and that their stated unwillingness to negotiate about certain portions of the bill in Conference was not reasonable.

When asked if the price tag of the bill will be larger once it comes out of Conference, Hoyer said no, and highlighted that the original House bill was less expensive than the Senate version by several billion dollars, and created half a million more jobs. Job creation is the main focus of the House in this stimulus package, according to Hoyer, who said that helping those hurt by the crisis was a top priority. The final question during the session asked if $1.5 trillion dollars was enough money to invest in the recovery package, and Hoyer said that the fact that we are talking about numbers of this magnitude really says something about the sorry state that we let our economy slide into.

Hoyer said that the Conference Committee is expected to start immediately, and says he thinks the president would sign the House version of the bill “enthusiastically”.

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service