Blaine Luetkemeyer can’t answer a simple question from a reporter:

When asked whether he supported allowing the Medicare program to negotiate with prescription drug companies, Luetkemeyer’s campaign sent out a release criticizing Baker for voting against a push last year to strip away taxes on Social Security benefits.

“I believe that the hard-working people of the 9th Congressional District especially our seniors should be allowed to keep more money in their pockets rather than turn it over to Judy Baker’s liberal friends in Congress with a knack for funding pork barrel projects,” Luetkemeyer said in a statement. “There is a clear contrast between my dedication to fiscal responsibility and Judy Baker’s tax-and-spend approach to government including her unwillingness to give Missouri seniors a tax break.”

So we still don’t know where Luetkemeyer stands on making prescription drugs more affordable. We do know that Luetkemeyer stands for “fiscal responsibility”, which apparently means giving away billions to pharmaceutical companies.

Let’s back up a second. In a time when all Americans, particularly the elderly, face rapidly rising health care costs, and the federal budget deficit spirals out of control, you’d think candidates for federal office would get behind commonsense solutions that tackle both problems at the same time. In the race for the 9th Congressional District, Judy Baker is the only candidate who’s taking on this challenge.

In 2002, Pharmaceutical companies managed to extract a major concession from Congress in the massive legislative wrangling over the addition of prescription drug coverage to Medicare. The federal government would subsidize the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, but would not be permitted to use the power of bulk purchasing to negotiate the price of the drugs. Which is insane. It’s the only part of the government restrained from doing just that (the VA actually negotiates prices for prescription drugs for veterans), and private companies from insurance firms to Wal-Mart negotiate lower prices using the size of their purchases. Wal Mart even does it for prescription drugs for its pharmacies.

Negotiating for lower prescription drug prices could save consumers (and the federal budget) billions of dollars, which is especially relevant at a time when the economy is stagnating and the federal deficit is over $400 billion a year. But Luetkemeyer seems to think that bleating “fiscal responsibility” over and over again and closing his ears will get us past the problem.

My guess is that he’ll keep silent, because there’s no way he can win a debate with a health care expert like Judy Baker.