Political Quotes

“I must rise to indicate that I could not be more concerned about the approach that is being taken on this amendment. I am proud to be a cosponsor of the underlying Baucus amendment that provides a real prescription drug plan for our seniors. No ifs, ands, or buts. It is real. It is there, and it will not come out of the Medicare trust fund. This budget resolution, unfortunately, is a big shell game. It starts by saying, except for Medicare and Social Security, every penny-plus will go to a tax cut to wealthiest Americans; every penny projected for 10 years of any possible surplus. Then, to pay for funding, it moves Medicare trust funds of $500 billion-plus over into something called the contingency fund. We have been spending a lot of time trying to shore up Medicare and Social Security and protect it for the future. The last thing we need to do is be spending those trust funds. But because of the way this budget resolution is put together, the entire Medicare trust fund goes from about being protected over to being spent.”