WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the pharmaceutical industry’s agreement to help close a gap in Medicare’s drug coverage will make health care overhaul more possible.

Drug companies have pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors and pay for a portion of Obama’s proposed revamping of health care. The deal was struck with Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, as well as the White House.

The president was joined Monday in announcing the deal by Barry Rand, head of the senior citizens’ advocacy group AARP. Speaking in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Obama praised drug companies for stepping up to do their part in the reform effort.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Oklahoma) and U.S. Representatives Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) and Devin Nunes (R-California), will hold a press conference Wednesday, May 20, at 11:00 a.m. in the Senate Radio-Television Gallery to discuss health care reform and their new legislation, “The Patients’ Choice Act of 2009.”

WHAT:          Press Conference with Senators Richard Burr, Tom Coburn and Representatives Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes
WHEN:          Wednesday, May 20, at 11:00 a.m.
WHERE:        Senate Radio-Television Gallery, U.S. Capitol

CARY, N.C. — Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue worked to cement her differences with Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory on public education in a televised gubernatorial debate Friday, with the Democrat ticking off her positions on vouchers, community college tuition and catch-phrase initiatives of the past 15 years.
     
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