Kent Conrad: “They are--as can be clearly seen with the combined effect of the amendment they adopted yesterday on prescription drugs…”

“They are--as can be clearly seen with the combined effect of the amendment they adopted yesterday on prescription drugs and the amendment they seek to adopt today --raiding the Medicare trust fund in the years 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. That just can't be the way we do business. The Johnson amendment, instead, provides that we take this money first out of the surplus for the year 2001, and thereafter out of the oversized tax cut which goes disproportionately to the wealthiest 1 percent.”