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[Page: H2862]  GPO's PDF
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   (Mr. BACA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

   Mr. BACA. Madam Speaker, Congress needs to adopt a Medicare prescription drug benefit, rather than making false promises to American seniors.

   The Republican plan will not guarantee affordable prescription drug coverage for our seniors. The Republican plan takes its first step toward privatizing Medicare , forcing seniors to deal with private insurance companies.

   Those of us can remember what happened in California when they said that we would have plenty of energy. We deregulated, and yet we do not have the energy, yet the prices continued to go up.

   We do not want prices to go up for a lot of our seniors. More than one-third of the 35 million Medicare beneficiaries currently have no prescription drug insurance coverage.

   I did a study in my district that shows that seniors are being impoverished by drug prices. San Bernardino seniors pay an average of 90 percent more than seniors in Canada and Mexico.

   Individuals should not be sacrificing their fixed income for the sake of protecting themselves instead of spending it on leisure or other items. What they have to do now is budget themselves. It becomes very difficult, and yet they do not want to continue to suffer.

   I plan to have a press conference on prescription drugs on June 18 at the Rancho Cucamonga Senior Citizens Center from 8 a.m. to 12 noon to address these needs.

   I ask that we adopt affordable, voluntary, reliable Medicare prescription drug coverage for all seniors. It is our responsibility to protect them. It is America's responsibility to see that they can all afford medical coverage.