Eliot Engel: “for many years I have sponsored and worked for a real prescription drug bill for seniors and this bill breaks my heart.…”

“for many years I have sponsored and worked for a real prescription drug bill for seniors and this bill breaks my heart. This bill is not a bipartisan bill. It is a Republican fraud. The Republican leadership would like to privatize Medicare and replace it with private insurance vouchers and HMO health care. That is what this bill does. It is the beginning of the destruction of Medicare and the destruction and privatization of Social Security is next. You mark my words. We should be giving seniors a clean prescription drug bill under the Medicare program, but we do not have money for that because the Republican tax cuts for the rich and the stealing from the Social Security trust fund make it impossible to have any money left to pay for a real prescription drug program. The hodgepodge of benefits will do nothing but confuse seniors. After spending $2,200 in drug bills, seniors will have to pay the next $1,400 out of pocket without any help whatsoever while they still pay their monthly premiums. What kind of assistance is that? Seniors want a real drug bill and they want it to begin now, not in 2006. They want help in bringing drug prices down. This bill does none of that. When I first came to Congress 15 years ago, I asked my mother what was the best thing we could do to help senior citizens and she said, give us a prescription drug program. Tonight, my colleagues, my mother gave me some more good advice. She said, vote against this sham bill.”