Political Quotes

“I am delighted to co-sponsor this amendment with Senator Domenici, the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee, and Senator Grassley, chairman of the Finance Committee. This amendment has a simple but critical purpose: to increase by $147 billion the reserve fund in this resolution for a Medicare prescription drug benefit and Medicare reform. That is, this amendment would nearly double the reserve fund to $300 billion, with monies coming from the on-budget surplus. Let me note that nothing in this amendment commits Congress to spend the entire reserve fund. Indeed, in truth we do not yet know what additional resources will be needed. We will know better when the Congressional Budget Office reports estimates several weeks from now on a variety of Medicare reform and prescription drug proposals. In short, this additional reserve amount will help ensure that the President and Congress will have sufficient resources to enact both a prescription drug benefit and other badly needed Medicare improvements this year.”