Jim Nussle: “Mr. Speaker, it is pretty obvious that over the weekend the Democrats did a poll. They rush in here with a motion to…”

“Mr. Speaker, it is pretty obvious that over the weekend the Democrats did a poll. They rush in here with a motion to instruct conferees on the budget resolution with a time stamp on here of 3:45, not too long ago. The ink is not even dry on this. They rushed in here with this motion to instruct conferees. What does it say? It says, know what? We are getting our brains beat in on this prescription drug benefit. The Republicans beat us when it came to the budget resolution; they are beating us when it comes to public relations on prescription drugs because they know that our original proposal did not have a thing. The President's proposal did not have a prescription drug benefit. The original proposal that the Democrats brought forth in the Committee on the Budget did not have a prescription drug benefit that started until the third year. In fact, it cut Medicare. Oh, no, we didn't cut Medicare on beneficiaries. We cut it on providers is what they will say. In my area, as the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) was saying, in rural areas those kind of cuts will be devastating. They may say in the third year that they have a prescription drug benefit; but when all the rural hospitals close, they do not have health care.”