David Thomas: “tonight we want to discuss one of the measures that has passed the House of Representatives. Sometimes, we do not feel…”

“tonight we want to discuss one of the measures that has passed the House of Representatives. Sometimes, we do not feel the need to discuss measures that have gone through committee and have passed the House, but since there has been so much misrepresentation about the legislation that passed the House on a bipartisan vote called the Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act, and since the Presidential nominees are engaged in a spirited debate, I thought it would be worthwhile to take some time, one, to focus on what it is that the House actually did, but probably more important than the specifics is to put in context the way in which the prescription drug issue has been discussed. I think the first thing that people have to remember is that as the former majority, the Democrats controlled the House the entire time Medicare was law, up until 1994. Indeed, when President Clinton was elected in 1992, the Democrats controlled the House, they controlled the Senate, and they controlled the Presidency. I find it rather interesting that at a time when they could do anything they wanted to do, they did not talk about putting prescription drugs in Medicare for seniors.”