Thursday, July 17, 2003 | 9:20 a.m.
The "Catch 22" in Congress' pill bill puts people like my wife and me in a bind. Technically, we aren't poor enough to qualify for aid but buying our pills makes us poor. The bill is obviously designed to placate the public while maintaining the pill-makers' profits.
Of course, you can't blame members of Congress for designing this useless piece of legislation to suit their mentors. After all, next to oil men, pharmaceutical companies are the biggest contributors to their campaigns. And hard-working politicians need those extra perks from the pill makers' lobbyists to support families, send kids to Harvard and Bryn Mawr, and buy cars appropriate for their lofty status. It's a terrible burden, the things they have to put up with to make ends meet, but we must understand it's for the good of the country.
It would be nice if Bush would take time off from stirring up trouble around the Persian Gulf and Africa and direct these congressmen toward uplifting ordinary people back home. But then he is in debt to the pill makers too, isn't he?
PAUL GWIN
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