Political Quotes

“it has been my observation that a proposal of that nature is something I have aptly named, in my opinion, the Marie Antoinette plan. We all know in history the story of Marie Antoinette, who, when approached about the plight of the French citizens saying they were starving because they had not bread, she replied, well, let them eat cake. What this privatization proposal, the buying of a drug benefit, is, is seniors crying out that we need prescription drug relief and, in an insensitive manner, saying, they need prescription drug relief, let them buy insurance. It just simply is actuarially not capable of being written at a price that anyone could remotely pay for, and so, therefore, the skepticism with respect to this, I think, has been well chronicled. But we are a better body than that. We need to rise above this and speak to the better angels that exist in this body and appeal, as I have heard Members from both sides come down with their concern to address this. We need the membership of both sides to have a debate on this and to pass a bill that seeks to provide relief for our senior citizens, and we need to do so because of the commitment and promises that have been made by virtually every Member in this Chamber.”