Legislation to Confront Opioid Crisis: Garden Hoses Against a Wildfire
House Floor Speech,
America does have a fire when it comes to opioid crises. What we're getting this week and next, instead of experienced professional firefighters with a plan to put out that wildfire, we're being offered a collection of garden hoses. It won't get the job done.
If words, if speeches, if the President's tweets could resolve this problem, we could be here today celebrating a victory. But instead we have a piecemeal program around the edges of the crises. And you only have to look at the President's tweets and his near meaningless declaration of the health care emergency at how he's handling the problem to know how serious these
I think the President views this as just another one in a series of political reality television shows that he is producing daily. Because instead of turning to a physician, a firefighter, a scientist, a drug policy expert, he's turned over the leadership of his entire opioid crisis effort to a political consultant and double-talk expert,
And with these 30 bills that are being considered today, making modest changes around the edges of the problem, we're not going to advance very far. Of course there is a reason for this in this
So like Trump, the
The President's latest assault on all Americans who have a pre-existing condition to deny them access to health care, his assault to cut billions out of Medicaid will deny the very places that so many people now can turn to for opioid treatment. So they won't add resources, they won't permit us to add resources, and they want to take away the resources that exist today.
Of course much of the treatment that is out there is necessary because of the wrongs committed by pharmaceutical manufacturers in promoting these opioids in the first place. And here again the test is not approved for bringing legislation on the floor because Big Pharma opposes it. I believe we should be following the lead of 41 State Attorneys Generals across America who are saying, let's look at what Pharma did to cause this problem. Why make the taxpayer pay for everything when Big Pharma played such a role? We ought to have accountability for those that helped to create the opioid crisis. And yet the federal government, though, again Trump talked about it, but he didn't do anything.
After talking about it, the
We need more than a photo-op type of version of these measures. If every one of the bills being considered, all 30 of them, are approved, few of those who really need treatment are going to get it as a result of this. And none of those responsible for this crisis will be held accountable. This crisis is a true hurricane. It's being treated like a dust devil. So approve these modest proposals that do no harm, but then let's move forward with a
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