The Associated Press reports that US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) wants to delay any vote that would allow the reimportation of less expensive prescription medicines from nations such as Canada into the US.
Frist, a medical doctor who has been an outspoken opponent of reimportation because of concerns about safety, says that there is too little time left in the legislative schedule to consider the legislation before the presidential election. The Bush administration has generally opposed reimportation, though it has been backing off this stance of late. At the same time, a number of states and municipalities have been acting on their own to source less expensive drugs from Canada.
Some Senate Democrats say that they would like to push for a vote before the election. “This has been debated over and over and over again. With the broad bipartisan consensus, we must act. And we intend to see the Senate take a position and have a vote," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota).
Frist, a medical doctor who has been an outspoken opponent of reimportation because of concerns about safety, says that there is too little time left in the legislative schedule to consider the legislation before the presidential election. The Bush administration has generally opposed reimportation, though it has been backing off this stance of late. At the same time, a number of states and municipalities have been acting on their own to source less expensive drugs from Canada.
Some Senate Democrats say that they would like to push for a vote before the election. “This has been debated over and over and over again. With the broad bipartisan consensus, we must act. And we intend to see the Senate take a position and have a vote," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota).
- KC's View:
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Have the vote before the election, and people will be casting their votes in order to position their political parties before the presidential election. Have the vote after the election, and you’ll find out what people really think about the issue…but it’s too late to influence the electorate.
Seems to us that either way the voters lose. So what else it new?
