David Thomas: “Mr. Speaker, I called up this bill for seniors and for taxpayers. This evening you are going to hear some very harsh…”

“Mr. Speaker, I called up this bill for seniors and for taxpayers. This evening you are going to hear some very harsh rhetoric. But what I really want to do is remind everyone here that since Republicans became the majority in this House in 1995, there has been a very positive and remarkable change to Medicare. Probably most important has been the introduction of preventive and wellness. For many years, it was available to be added to Medicare, but it was not. It took the Republican majority to add the testing and the education for diabetes, for osteoporosis, for improved mammography, for colorectal cancer screening, for prostate screening; and even today in this bill we continue with cholesterol screening and physical exams. Tonight, the Republican majority is going to add prescription drugs to Medicare. We earnestly seek our friends across the aisle help in doing this. The conference report before us is bipartisan. It is bipartisan because of the House and the Senate structure. Tonight our friends across the aisle have a chance to make it bipartisan in the House. Our friends say that we are trying to destroy Medicare; but if we are trying to destroy Medicare, why is the American Association of Retired People supporting this proposal? Why is the AARP in favor of this bill?”