Max Baucus: “again, to remind all Senators, this is a compromise. It is an effort on the part of Senator Smith of Oregon and myself…”

“again, to remind all Senators, this is a compromise. It is an effort on the part of Senator Smith of Oregon and myself to find the proper number of years of bonus depreciation. It is an effort to find the proper amount of reimbursement to States for lost Medicaid dollars. All Senators agree this is not only in the ballpark, it is probably so close to filling up the ballpark that it really cannot be improved upon a heck of a lot. I think it is a good amendment. Further, I remind my colleagues, with the split in this body basically 50-50, this is the only way we are going to accomplish anything of consequence. That is, by sitting down and not engaging in rhetoric and preaching to people through the cameras, making them feel good, but, rather, working together to pass legislation that makes people's lives better and significantly better. That is what we are charged to do. If you were to ask voters, do you want your Senator to make speeches just for the sake of making speeches or do you want your Senator to get something done that really makes sense for us in the State, it may not be all we want but he has done a pretty good job, clearly the answer is the latter. They want us to do something that makes sense. That is what the Senator from Oregon and I are doing. I strongly urge my colleagues to take a good, strong look at it. It is a bipartisan amendment. It has bipartisan support. More than that, it has the support of the people of the country.”