Democrats believe we must have comprehensive health care reform that includes giving the federal government authority to negotiate lower prices with drug companies.

Clyburn’s statement frames health-care reform as inseparable from prescription-drug pricing power. The key claim is institutional: Democrats, he says, want the federal government to have explicit authority to bargain directly with pharmaceutical companies, using the government’s purchasing scale to push prices down. Implicitly, the quote contrasts this approach with policies that rely on market competition, private insurers, or statutory price-setting limits. It also signals a broader reform agenda (“comprehensive health care reform”) in which drug-cost containment is presented as both a fiscal necessity (reducing public spending) and a moral one (improving affordability and access for patients).