Political Quotes

“it has been a contentious, partisan week in the House of Representatives, and much of the division has involved the Medicare Program. The budget passed by this House yesterday on a largely partisan vote imposes cuts of $284 billion that will be devastating to the program. That will definitely mean higher out-of-pocket costs for seniors and less choice. I feel bad about that issue this morning and bad about the way the House resolved it and anxious about how those cuts will actually be put in place as we deal with the legislation that is before us. It is sometimes difficult, then, to get on to other issues where there is in essence no partisan division, where it is a pretty clear and simple little bill that ought not have some of the rancor from earlier debates spilling over into it, but that is not precisely the case with the Medicare select extension before us today. It passed the first time in the House of Representatives 408 to 14, most Democrats, most Republicans joining together in a rather unusual show of bipartisan support for a program.”