Gus Bilirakis: “day after day we hear a good deal of criticism about many aspects of this new Medicare discount card that the gentleman…”

“day after day we hear a good deal of criticism about many aspects of this new Medicare discount card that the gentleman from Texas was referring to. We hear, of course, criticism about the entire thing, but particularly that. Some will say that the savings are not large enough. To that I would say that the savings available through these cards, and, more importantly, as the gentleman from Texas said, the $600 per individual transitional assistance for the poorest of our seniors, are a heck of a lot better than what many seniors were getting before this Congress and this President acted to provide Medicare beneficiaries with prescription drug coverage. I have always maintained, I have already said it, that since we have limited resources available to us, we should target our resources to those who need help the most, the poorest and the sickest. The transitional assistance available under these cards will provide a lot of help to an awful lot of people.”