Barbara Boxer: “President Bush, this is going to be an issue. People are going to take a look at this. It is one thing to send our…”

“President Bush, this is going to be an issue. People are going to take a look at this. It is one thing to send our troops to war; it is another thing to not be there with what they need when they come back. And we are going to make that an issue. There is one other thing we need to make an issue because there are some things going on in this country that are on the wrong track. I know my friend agrees with this. The seniors in this country just got hit with a 17.4-percent increase in their Medicare premiums. I say to my friend from Iowa, who is a champion not only of veterans but of seniors and children and education and all these other issues, how are our elderly going to handle this? This is the largest single premium increase in nearly 40 years of history with Medicare. My friend and I know why. The No. 1 reason is this: This administration worked on a Medicare bill that has a $14 billion slush fund to the HMOs, to 'convince them,' to convince them to take Medicare patients. That is $14 billion. What else? Medicare is prohibited from negotiating for lower drug prices.”