Phil Gingrey: “Mr. Murphy, thank you so much for that and for your insights. As I was standing here listening to Mr. Murphy, I cannot…”

“Mr. Murphy, thank you so much for that and for your insights. As I was standing here listening to Mr. Murphy, I cannot help but, Mr. Speaker, wanting to go back just for a moment to this press release of March 9, 2000, from the Bill Clinton White House. There were a couple of things that I did not mention that I want to read to you before we yield to Representative Drake. In this press release it says, and this is one of the bullet points, ``Consistent with broader reform. The addition of a Medicare drug benefit should be considered as part of an overall plan to strengthen and modernize Medicare. Medicare will face the same demographic strain as Social Security when the baby boom generation retires. Improving benefits is only one step in preparing Medicare for this new century's challenges.'' I will say one thing about the Democrats, they are pretty consistent because they opposed any changes to Social Security as well. In fact, this is exactly what they called for but, once again, as I said at the outset, they could not deliver and it is killing them. But unfortunately, their continuing rhetoric runs the risk of killing some of our seniors, the six or so million of them, who need this benefit. And it is just shameful. Shameless, as Garth Brooks sings the title of one of my favorite songs. But they keep on. But hopefully maybe over the next couple of weeks, maybe during this 2-week recess they will get religion. It is certainly a time for religion.…”