Friday, March 28, 1997
Hutchison makes herself at home in Munday
By LORETTA FULTON
Regional Editor
MUNDAY - If it weren't for the twin-engine turbo prop King
Air parked at the airport, it would have been difficult to distinguish
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison from her hosts at a gathering here Thursday.
Hutchison, making her first visit to Knox County, sounded like
one of the homefolks, talking to the high school kids about their
sports teams and the grownups about their community and their
concerns.
Hutchison, who grew up in La Marque, a city of 15,000 people
on the Gulf Coast, said she enjoys traveling the counties she
hasn't seen before.
"It really rejuvenates my spirit to go to the smaller
parts of our state and see what I'm working for in Washington,"
she said.
What she wants in Washington, Hutchison said, is "less
government, less intrusion on people's lives, fewer regulations,
fewer taxes and to make life as good as it can be."
Congress' most important mission, Hutchison said, is to reach
a balanced budget by 2002. If our current $5 trillion debt isn't
"whittled," she said, "we're not going to have
a solid economy" and we will turn over our bills to future
generations.
Balancing the budget will require reforming Medicare, Hutchison
said, without cutting "providers so much that we ruin the
health care system that is so good in our country."
Cutting fraud and abuse in the Medicare system will save hundreds
of millions of dollars, she said.
Hutchison also addressed the "forgotten" oil and
gas industry in the United States. As the new Congressional Oil
and Gas Caucus co-chair, Hutchison said her first priority will
be "to provide tax relief that will encourage oil and gas
drilling and production, especially for marginal wells and formations
difficult to develop," she said.
Hutchison deftly handled questions from the audience of about
30 that was packed into the sparkling clean Chamber of Commerce
and Agriculture.
A former Republican candidate for the District 70 state House
of Representatives seat, Wilma Hogan, urged Hutchison to reconsider
her support of federal funding for the National Endowment for
the Arts because of "graphic art that conservative, small-town
people really don't appreciate."
While not agreeing to change her position, Hutchison said she
did agree with Hogan's concerns.
"I don't want our tax dollars to fund obscenity or pornography
or anything that's just not appropriate in the mainstream of values
in our country," Hutchison said.
However, she said she believes public funding is important
for regional symphonies and operas such as in Abilene "so
our young people can be exposed to the arts."
She said she has introduced a bill placing restrictions on
funding to prevent money being spent on obscene or pornographic
material as judged by the "general standard in the community."
Questions also arose over the plight of small-town pharmacists
who can't compete with mail-order sales, hospitals or health maintenance
organizations.
Franciene Johnson of Haskell, a member of the National Silver
Haired Congress and former pharmacy owner, said people who buy
from small town druggists pay "the highest prices in the
nation" for pharmaceuticals.
The reason, she said, is that community pharmacists are prohibited
from buying at the same low cost as the large group buyers.
When Hutchison suggested the small-town druggists form a co-op,
local pharmacist Don Bunton said he belongs to an organization
of 4,000 pharmacies but the drug manufacturers wouldn't talk to
them.
Johnson explained that the manufacturers give discounts to
HMOs, hospitals and mail-order buyers. When the manufacturer gives
a discount to a preferred group, she said, that cost is passed
on to the community pharmacist.
There are no restrictions on the manufacturer to sell drugs
to the small-town pharmacist at the same price they sell it to
large groups, she said.
"It's discriminatory pricing and there's no recourse,"
Johnson said.
Because of the unfair pricing, six pharmacies in this area
have gone out of business in the past five years, Bunton said.
Hutchison said she didn't understand why the manufacturers
wouldn't offer the same low price to any bulk buyer and promised
to have her staff research the issue.
After leaving Munday, Hutchison made stops in Throckmorton,
Wichita Falls, Quanah and Crowell.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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