Bill Nelson: “The Senator is correct. It is a sad commentary all these things that were promised to veterans--that everybody was so…”

“The Senator is correct. It is a sad commentary all these things that were promised to veterans--that everybody was so eager, elbowing one another aside to try to get to the front of the line to support--through such things as concurrent receipt, eager to get to the front of the line to support a prescription drug benefit for Medicare seniors--have all been cast aside. Yet I cannot believe what I am seeing on the television when I go home. I see all these TV advertisements about how all these people who have blocked a prescription drug benefit to modernize Medicare say they have voted for one. Well, they voted for one. They voted for a version that was a subsidy from the Federal Government to insurance companies supposedly to provide prescription drug benefits. But in every State where a similar law has been passed to get insurance companies to provide a prescription drug benefit, the insurance companies will not do it because they cannot make money on it and, therefore, the senior citizens are the ones who suffer because they do not get the prescription drug benefit. So isn't it interesting they always want to run to the front of the line and talk about how they are for all of these things, but when it comes to doing it, where are the votes, particularly in a body such as the Senate, in which in order to pass anything you have to get 60 of 100 Senators because of our rules to cut off debate?”