Mike Thompson: “Mr. President, I think what we are about here today is a part of a broader consideration, and that is our responsibility…”

“Mr. President, I think what we are about here today is a part of a broader consideration, and that is our responsibility to the American people. We are getting about, I believe, responding to an issue here that is on the minds of the American people and we are doing something that is different, I think, than what has been going on in this body and in this city for a long time. And that is, we are facing up to our responsibilities. Mr. President, I feel that for a long period of time in this country the U.S. Congress, in being more interested in the next election and the next election cycle than the next generation, for a long time has been putting its problems off and rolling them forward again and again and again hoping that perhaps the next generation or someone else will figure out how to dig out from under the present problems that we have laid on them. This Medicare situation falls into that category. We have to face up to it.”