Frank Pallone

I find that incredible. I have never heard of a situation where the government pays to rebut criticism of the program.

So we now are standing here and basically pointing out why this bill does not benefit seniors, and the administration is going to spend taxpayers' money to say the opposite.

That is exactly why the ethics law says you cannot do it, it is wrong. So why should any waivers be granted? And there is no basis for the waiver. I asked in the case of Scully why and if there were any special circumstances, and the…

Less well known is the likelihood that the drug coverage will actually become worse with each passing year. The premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenditures will all increase rapidly, tied to increases in per capita drug…

The amazing thing to me, the fact that the White House, I guess because of the public pressure, because of people speaking out about what Scully did, are now saying that the department cannot grant the waiver, but the White House can. It…

I just want to reiterate in closing what the gentleman said again about the need to work with Democrats. Really, the hallmark of this administration, and also the Republican leadership in this House, has been to exclude the Democrats and…

The bill avoids any cost containment. It actually says the Secretary of Medicare administrator cannot negotiate price reductions. There is nothing in the bill with these discount cards that would have any impact on the drug companies'…

We have done some statistical analysis that shows the majority of the seniors fall into the donut hole. So some people might think, well, I am not going to fall into that, but most seniors will be in that situation where they are paying a…

I do not really care about the ideology. I just think this thing is not going to work and not deliver any benefit to seniors and they are going to lose their choice of doctors by having to join an HMO. It is great to see some of the…

When I have posed that to the Republicans and I have said, the private market does not want to come in, even the HMOs do not come in, their answer is, we'll just give them more money. We know they have these plus-ups. I guess about $20…

Again I have not seen the bill because it has not been given to the Democrats, but my understanding is that the Medicare program that the gentleman has talked about, the comprehensive program, is not effective until the year 2006. Could…

I just hope that somehow our bringing this to light will make a difference. I know it will not in that $87 billion supplemental because they are going to bring that back tomorrow or the next day, and all these no-bid contracts and the…

We have brought up a motion on a weekly bases to instruct the conferees to bring up that child tax credit for the lower-income Americans, and the conference has not even met. They have not even had a meeting to discuss trying to bring the…

Reclaiming my time, I suppose you could argue that, that if they really believed that this does not privatize Medicare, they should agree to the motion. I agree with the Democratic Whip. But the problem is they are privatizing Medicare and…

I just would like to comment on a few facts that she mentioned because I think they are so important... they did not want to leave the Federal program that they had as retirees, which has a very generous prescription drug benefit, and be…

I believe very strongly that neither of these proposals... accomplish the goal of providing America's seniors with a prescription drug benefit that is worth having. I say that because I think it has to be understood that the effort to…

I just do not understand why something which is so simple is not understood by our Republican colleagues, and I come to the conclusion that they are in the pocket of the special interests, whether it is the insurance companies or the…

I just want to say, they operate on the premise, and they keep saying it over and over again, I have heard it on the other side in the well, on the Republican side, that Medicare is broke, Medicare needs to be fixed, and Medicare does not…

We bought a hearing aid for my mother. It cost $800. My brothers and I and my sister each threw in $200 and bought her a hearing aid. That is the only thing we had to do. People do not understand what they are cutting away now.

I think we have to point out the shortcomings of this legislation, because it is, as the gentleman says, the foundation for the whole Republican agenda here in this Congress. It is going to wreak havoc, I think, not only with the economy…

They are already talking about a prescription drug plan that forces seniors, if they want any kind of prescription drug plan, to go into an HMO or some kind of private organization. It is a measly benefit even if you opt to do that. The…

I think that Senator Lincoln said that half the people in her State fell into that category. In New Jersey the average income is higher than that, obviously, but there are still going to be people in my district that are not going to get…

I think what the gentleman said in particular about the fact that this amount of damages, the $250,000 has no basis in fact. During the Committee on Commerce hearing last week, I asked many times, where does the $250,000 come from? What is…

Mr. Speaker, I want to share an added story. It goes to the point of how one's position or issues can be misconstrued. I hope my colleague does not think I am going far awry, but it is an important point because sometimes even Members are…

But when we get a budget with a $9.7 billion shortfall from what would be necessary to authorize and carry forth that act, that no-child-left-behind program, it is essentially hypocritical to continue to talk about no child left behind.