I saw Sen. Byron Dorgan, D.-N.D., recently on C-Span at a press conference in Washington. Among the senators who joined him there were Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Olympia Snowe of Maine. The president and CEO of the American Association of Retired People also took part. AARP was endorsing Dorgan's legislation to allow importation of lower priced prescription drugs into the United States. McCain and Snowe are co-sponsors of Dorgan's bill.
It's documented that Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription medicines. Prices are much lower in other countries, including Canada. Dorgan wants to put free market pressures to work to lower prices here, allowing lower priced medicines from abroad to compete with supplies already sold here at artificially high prices dictated by the drug companies. That makes sense.
I also like that Dorgan is working in a bipartisan way on this. We have too much negativity in government and politics. Dorgan is working in a positive way on an important problem and working with Republicans as well as Democrats to solve it. AARP's support of that effort will be a big boost.
Gene Johnson
Fargo
