Barbara Boxer: “I take a couple of minutes to explain an amendment we will be voting on later that was introduced on my behalf by…”

“I take a couple of minutes to explain an amendment we will be voting on later that was introduced on my behalf by Senator Reid and to let my colleagues know I think it is a stunning situation when suddenly, after fighting back all the amendments that we had to try to improve the benefits, that we are giving our seniors-- miraculously there is $12 billion found and it will start a whole new experiment, which may be very interesting and may be just fine. It will push some people out of Medicare and see if it works better in the private sector. I hate to say we have tried it and it hasn't worked but that is fine. At the same time, we are going to allow Medicare to do more prevention and do more pharmaceutical benefit. We will see what that looks like when it comes to us. The point I am making, yesterday the Senator from Pennsylvania was railing against some Members who wanted to make this plan better because there was no money. It was so expensive. But they found money to do some experiment. Today I have an amendment to give people a chance to decide if they want to help people with cancer, if they want to help people who are diagnosed with cancer. I don't know if you have ever had the experience of having cancer in your family, but surely we all know people who have had that experience. Life in that family comes to a halt.”