John Ensign: “I thank the co-author of this amendment, the Senator from Nebraska, for the great work he has done; and, by the way…”

“I thank the co-author of this amendment, the Senator from Nebraska, for the great work he has done; and, by the way, that both of our staffs have done in coming up with an amendment that we think is fiscally responsible and that meets the needs of those seniors who need it the most. We have heard a lot of examples during the House debate, and during the Senate debate, about those seniors who are having to choose between paying rent and paying for prescription drugs, or paying their food bills and being able to pay their drug bills. We have heard about a lot of heartbreaking stories. Those are real stories that are out there. We have those stories in my home State of Nevada. We get letters from those people all the time. I got an e-mail a few weeks ago from a lady who sent this e-mail at 11:20 p.m. West Coast Time. She was up thinking--and probably looking through her medical bills--and just crying out for help, asking if I would be willing to take a moral stand to help seniors who need the help the most? Our amendment does exactly that. It helps those seniors who need help the most. But this morning, I was also thinking about our responsibility to our children and the next generation of young people coming up who are going to be working for a living and paying taxes. Will Medicare and Social Security be there for them? Will this country be there for them? Somebody has to pay for all of these programs that we are talking about.”