Political Quotes

“first, I in no way intended to express doubt about my colleague's sincerity on this issue. I, in fact, indicated in my comments that I appreciated her commitment and understand this is an issue with which she has been very involved and it certainly is an issue she cares deeply about and an amendment, I am sure, that is intended for all purposes to move in the right direction. I commend her for that. I shared those same experiences when I was in the House of Representatives working with the home health groups and having the opportunity to be very involved as a House Member. I very much appreciate the work of the Senator from Maine. What I question is simply the language in the amendment and the mechanism being used. The practical reality is that if we adopt an amendment that indicates the dollars will be put aside but cannot be used if, in fact, the Medicare trust fund is dipped into, that is an impossible situation because the vast majority of the contingency fund is, in fact, the Medicare trust fund. When we look at what the President has proposed to spend from the contingency fund, which is the Medicare trust fund predominantly, my fear is that we will find a situation where the Senator's well-intended amendment, if adopted, might be in a situation where it could not take effect without dipping into the Medicare trust fund. This bars dipping into the Medicare trust fund, which I support.”