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Guest Commentary May 7, 2002
Congress Procrastinating on Prescription Drug Bill
The Honorable Zell Miller
Most of our elderly in this country are not wealthy. Many live on fixed incomes. Half live below what is statistically known as the Lower Poverty Level threshold. That means they are the ones hurt most by rising health care costs.
There's a tender and moving song by John Prine that some of you may know. He sings about an elderly couple with hollow and vacant eyes looking out a screen door waiting for someone just to say "Hello in there."
The elderly are waiting for something else, too. Waiting for us to do something about their health care needs. Waiting for us to help them with the skyrocketing costs of their prescription drugs.
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So far, they've waited in vain, each day growing older and weaker.
Talk is cheap around this place. That's especially true when it comes to prescription drugs.
Both parties made this promise to our seniors in 2000. Among the folks who ran for president or for Congress in 2000, about one of every five of their TV ads was about prescription drugs. And here we are in 2002 - two years later - and we still haven't done anything on prescription drugs. ...
While our seniors have been suffering and waiting, we've just spent eleven weeks negotiating a new Farm Bill. I was for it and it was hard to get. Surely our elderly are as deserving of our time and representation as peanuts or sugar or chickens? ...
I would say that other than defense and homeland security, there is nothing more important -- no higher priority right now -- than helping our seniors with the costs of their prescription drugs.
And I don't just mean we should call it a "priority," then save it as an issue for the fall elections. All the posturing and procrastinating we've done on this issue hasn't helped a single senior pay for a single prescription.
It's time to pass a bill. It's time to get some results for our elderly. They've been suffering and waiting long enough.
Zell Miller, a Democrat, is a U.S. Senator from Georgia. The above commentary has been adapted from the prepared remarks of Sen. Miller for a Capitol Hill news conference, May 1, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
