Bill Bennett: “we are debating the substance of the bill that came from the Finance Committee with respect to a prescription drug…”

“we are debating the substance of the bill that came from the Finance Committee with respect to a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. We all recognize that providing a prescription drug benefit for Medicare is long overdue, something that has been needed badly for a long period of time. I am heartened by the bipartisan nature of the vote that came out of the Finance Committee. I am reminded of an occasion when I first came to the Senate and we began debating health care. I fell in step with the then-chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Moynihan from New York. Senator Moynihan is one whom I met when I was first serving in the Nixon administration and he was serving as the domestic counselor to President Nixon. I felt close to him from then on. As we walked through the door into the Chamber, I said to him: Pat, do you think we are finally going to get some health care reform this year? And he said: Yes, I do. In the Nixon administration the President wanted it and the Democrats in the Congress said no. Later on--I believe he referred to the Carter administration--the President wanted it and Republicans in the Congress said no. He said: This time, the President wants it and the Congress wants it and I think we are going to get it done. He turned out not to have been right in that instance, perhaps one of the few times in his life when his reading of the political tea leaves was incorrect because we fell into wrangling.…”