Chuck Grassley: “Under that Democratic Alternative, ``resources,'' that's the term Senator Daschle used, set aside for a Medicare…”

“Under that Democratic Alternative, ``resources,'' that's the term Senator Daschle used, set aside for a Medicare prescription drug benefit were $311 billion. Under the bipartisan budget resolution, guess what, it's about the same number, $300 billion. That's right, both sides allocated basically the same resources, $311 billion versus $300 billion for Medicare improvements and a prescription drug benefit. So, the Democratic budget had prevailed, we'd basically be where we are today. There's another part of the record we have to examine. It's last year's Democratic Alternative tax relief package. The Democratic alternative was supported by all members of the Democratic Leadership and all but three members of the Democratic Caucus. Well, guess what. All of those Senators voted for a $1.260 trillion tax cut. That's 93 percent of the cost of the bipartisan tax relief. So, apparently 7 percent is a big difference. It's a big enough difference for the Democratic Leadership to blame President Bush and the bipartisan group of Senators that supported the tax relief package. I make this statement for one basic reason. The issues of budgeting, prescription drugs, and tax relief are important matters. Certainly everyone of us hears about these issues when we are back home. They are issues that our constituents expect us to resolve. Folks back home expect us to be intellectually honest in debating these important matters.…”