Marilyn Musgrave: “I admire altruism. I am very impressed when people want to help other individuals. I am very skeptical of altruism when…”

“I admire altruism. I am very impressed when people want to help other individuals. I am very skeptical of altruism when it is funded with other people's money. When we look at this Medicare prescription drug benefit, I think we ought to think about the young families in our country that are working very hard to make ends meet. Many of them are in their 30s, their 40s. They have young children. They are trying to figure out how they are going to pay for their little guy's glasses, the little boy in the second grade that cannot see the bulletin board. They are trying to figure out how they are going to have any quality time together because mom is working and dad is working and somebody has got to pick up the kids and somebody has got to buy the groceries. They are frazzled young families. They are trying to do the right thing by their family, but they are also trying to figure out how they are going to pay their taxes and they are going to make ends meet. When we look at these families and look at families where people are working in their late 50s and early 60s and they do not really have a very good prediction, good future for their retirement and they are working on because they are trying to make ends meet also, maybe we ought to think about those people before we try to figure out how we are going to give a benefit to the wealthy that do not even need it, the wealthy Americans who, God bless them, have been successful.”