Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a candidate in the 2020 presidential race, Friday released her plan to spend $100 billion toward fighting substance abuse and enhancing mental health services, explaining that she'll push for a fee on pharmaceutical companies to help fight opioid abuse.
"They made the money, they should pay for this treatment," the Minnesota Democrat told "CBS This Morning," while explaining she wants to charge companies that make opioids a fee of two cents per milligram.
Klobuchar said fighting addiction and funding treatment is a personal cause, as her father struggled with alcoholism. She added that she also wants to focus on preventing addiction, and is calling for finding alternatives to opioid painkillers and for expanding state and local funding for mental health programs.
Meanwhile, Klobuchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said there will be "absolutely no way" Congress will figure out what happened during the 2016 election unless special counsel Robert Mueller testifies.
Attorney General William Barr's testimony before her hearing was "misleading," said Klobuchar.
She also on Friday called for protecting U.S. elections against foreign interference through the use of backup paper ballots.
However, Klobuchar complained that "repeatedly, the White House has stopped us in our tracks" from passing election legislation.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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