Pete Domenici: “fellow Senators, first, I thank the Senator from Nebraska for yielding time. Second, I compliment him and the senior…”

“fellow Senators, first, I thank the Senator from Nebraska for yielding time. Second, I compliment him and the senior Senator from Nevada for offering this proposal which gives us a chance to do something very significant for our senior citizens. Let me go back and trace a little bit of modern history so everybody will know what caused the predicament we are in and why we can't do much more than this for our seniors at this point in time. First, the last budget resolution that passed was a budget resolution when we were in control by one or two votes. That budget resolution provided for a reform of Medicare and a prescription drug benefit that did not cost more than $300 billion over 10 years. We didn't use that because the history has it that the last President got in a very big argument with a bipartisan committee and told them to vote with him and out the window went a bipartisan reform bill. It went, because the last President--President Clinton--wanted Medicare reform, but only his, even though he had appointed a commission. There is one. Chalk that one up. Who is responsible for that one? President Clinton, without a doubt.”