ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Republicans in Congress put the pharmaceutical industry in charge when they passed the Medicare prescription drug plan, New Mexico's attorney general said Saturday.
"Big corporations ... routinely use their purchasing power to drive down prices for consumers. But the Republican Congress banned our government from doing the same" by specifically prohibiting it under the Medicare plan from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices, Patricia Madrid said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.
"And rather than allowing Medicare to provide prescription drugs directly to seniors, the Republican Congress invited the health insurance industry into the process and wrote a needlessly complicated law that has confused millions of seniors and their caregivers," she said.
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Madrid is seeking to unseat four-term Republican Heather Wilson in New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, which has been in GOP hands for decades. The contest is forecast as one of the top races nationally as Democrats try to erode the Republican majority in Congress.
Madrid's campaign said she is the first Democratic challenger of this year's election cycle to have the party's national radio platform.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/18/AR2006021800552.html