Deborah Koff Ross: “Well, let me say that this is not a partisan issue for me. I was one of those who supported President Bush's tax cut…”

“Well, let me say that this is not a partisan issue for me. I was one of those who supported President Bush's tax cut about a year ago. I just think now is not the time for additional tax cuts, not at a time when we are asking our men and women in uniform to sacrifice, and not at a time when we return to the days of deficit spending, and this country is $6 trillion in debt. Again, we are spending $1 billion a day just paying interest on the national debt. Now is the time to restore fiscal discipline to our national government, to pay down this debt, and to get out of the days of deficit spending. Let me tell the gentlewoman two things that concern me. If the President is just dying to spend $700 billion on something, let me tell my colleagues some things we ought to do in this country. We ought to quit talking about modernizing Medicare to include medicine for our seniors and we ought to do it, and we ought to fund it to where seniors can walk into the pharmacy of their choice, pull out their Medicare card and be treated just like they are when they go to the doctor and when they go to the hospital. We hear a lot about homeland security. We hear a lot of talk about it, but it is way underfunded.”