Angie Craig: “it is my intent within a few moments to withdraw this amendment, but I thought I should speak to it tonight because I am…”

“it is my intent within a few moments to withdraw this amendment, but I thought I should speak to it tonight because I am disappointed at this time that we could not get the scoring from CBO we felt would produce a revenue-neutral bill, or a cost-neutral bill, going into the final hours of this debate. This is an amendment that produces in this legislation, and hopefully to take up in conference, a consumer-driven health care plan under the new MedicareAdvantage program all of us are talking about at this moment. The Senator from New Hampshire gave a very impassioned speech from the depths of his heart, frustrated that this bill does not balance out and provide enough of the incentives in the market that will offset and create the kind of competitive forces being designed for Medicare with the extension of prescription drugs in it offers. For a few moments tonight, I did want to speak about that and explain it.”