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Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, 2\1/2\ years ago, a native of my home State of Illinois and a veteran of the U.S. Navy, Mark Frerichs, was abducted by the Taliban or one of its affiliates in Afghanistan.
He was working there as a contractor, and his disappearance was devastating to his family back in Lombard, IL.
Senator Duckworth and I have spent countless hours and staff hours working with his family trying to find out what happened to Mark. We spoke to his sister Charlene and repeatedly raised his case with both the Trump and Biden administrations. We wanted to let them know we cared, and we joined the family on that course.
Well, today, the family's prayers have been answered. The news was released that Mark is coming home. I want to commend President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and their teams for never giving up on Mark and ultimately securing his freedom.
His sister Charlene said upon news of her brother's release that ``[w]e never gave up hope that he would survive and come home safely to us.'' She was right. And Mark was so fortunate to have her as his steadfast champion.
Welcome home, Mark Frerichs. Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
Madam President, I listened to the comments that were just made by the Republican leader about events in Washington, the state of the economy, and it was interesting, the perspective he took. He was critical of President Biden for calling a meeting of several thousand supporters last week on the White House lawn from all over the United States to celebrate the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act here in the U.S. Senate and House. You know and I know there wasn't a single Republican vote in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act. Some 6 weeks ago, we did some things that, frankly, many of us had been hoping for for a long time without a single Republican vote supporting it.
The Senator from Kentucky wondered what we were celebrating. Well, let me tell him a few of the things we are celebrating.
After years of candidates going out on the campaign trail and telling America that the cost of prescription drugs were too high, we finally did something about it--finally. After years of negotiating the price for drugs in the Veterans' Administration so we could afford to give our veterans the very best, we applied the same standard to Medicare. What does it mean? It means that the most popular and most expensive drugs that are sold through Medicare to recipients over the age of 65, we are now going to negotiate the prices to come up with a reasonable amount to charge taxpayers for those drugs.
Well, if you wondered whether or not the pharmaceutical industry can handle that kind of truth, I might remind people what they already know. Exactly the same drugs in the same boxes are for sale in Canada at a fraction of the price that we pay in the United States. The same thing is true in Europe. And we said, once and for all, we are going to do something about it. I think that is something to celebrate.
Let me tell you something else that is part of it too. We said that, from this point forward, when this bill takes effect, no recipient on Medicare will ever pay more than $2,000 a year for prescription drugs-- upper limit, ceiling, 2,000 bucks. Do you know what these same people were faced with when it came to cancer drugs and other therapies? Thousands and thousands of dollars. And we brought it home to a level-- which I wish we could have done more, but it is very important as well--and that is when it comes to diabetes. Millions of Americans suffer from diabetes or someone in their family does, and we said that if you are on Medicare, you won't have to pay more than $35 for a dose of insulin--$35. That is a relief to a lot of people with diabetes in their family. Some of those people couldn't afford insulin, couldn't afford the doses they need, and they endangered their life in the process.
In addition to all of that, we, in this bill, did, in fact, address the Tax Code. The Senator from Kentucky said earlier that we raised taxes. We did. Let me tell you who is going to pay more in taxes. If you own a corporation that over the last 3 years has had a net profit, an average net profit, of $1 billion a year--1 billion--I am not asking for a show of hands--but if you had a net profit that averaged over $1 billion over the last 3 years, you have to pay a minimum corporate tax of--get ready--15 percent. Fifteen percent.
Most Americans pay their taxes believing that is what the law requires, and many believe, as I do, that is the price of admission in America for a great nation. Fifteen percent--we would all welcome that rate. There are very few people at that rate. But to say that a corporation with a net profit on average of $1 billion a year over the last 3 years finally has to pay taxes instead of escaping all tax liability-- guilty as charged. The Senator from Kentucky is right. We did that. Do you know the net result of it? The net result of it, it is going to reduce the deficit this year by $1.3 trillion.
All this talk about the big spenders in Congress, the bill we put together for inflation reduction zeroed in on those two issues: capping the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare and making certain that corporations, profitable corporations, pay their fair share of taxes just like every American family. Those two elements were not mentioned by the Senator from Kentucky. It is understandable. But what I want to make clear is, we didn't have a single Republican vote in support of what I have just given you.
There is an additional section there that is controversial, but I feel strongly about it. I think we are facing in this world today obvious evidence of extreme weather and changes that should alarm us. Yes, it is climate change. It is global warming. And what we did in this bill was to create incentives for American families and corporations to start taking steps toward responsible conduct. It is coming. It wasn't a Federal mandate that required all the car companies to build electric vehicles. They see the writing on the wall. They realize we have to change the way that we energize transportation in America, and they want to be in front of the parade, not behind it. So do we. That was part of this bill as well. I support it. Not a single Republican voted for it. That is the reality.
Incidentally, inflation is a burden on American families and individuals. There is no doubt about it, and I am not going to sugarcoat it. We have seen some progress. For example, the price of gasoline stares us right in the face every time we drive right down the road. Well, I did some driving over the weekend, probably put 600 to 700 miles on the car in Illinois, driving around to various events, and I kept an eye out for the cost of gasoline. I don't know what it is in Hawaii or in any home State, but I will tell you that in Missouri, gasoline was selling for $3.13 a gallon; in Illinois, closer to $3.50 a gallon. High? Yes. But not $5, which we faced just a few months ago. We have made some progress, and we need to continue to focus on reducing the cost of goods for families that they face every week. That is part of our mission as well.
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