Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, we want to go back just for a second and review precisely what was contained in this Republican budget proposal that passed the other day. As Members will recall, the first thing we did was to protect 100 percent of the Social Security surplus. That is the first time, I believe in my lifetime, that that has been done, where the government will not take money from the Social Security surplus to fund any other programs. The second item that we did was we strengthened Medicare and, in fact, created a $40 billion fund. And this fund is available for the purposes of funding a prescription drug program that will pass through the Committee on Ways and Means. First of all, I would hope that the wealthiest of our seniors would not qualify for this program. Children in many respects have the lowest priority in America, and it is a tragedy that our children are neglected. I begin to wonder if they are neglected because they do not vote or we do not value them. We value them with our rhetoric, but many times we do not value them with our actions. The fact is that a prescription drug benefit for seniors that are in need of that benefit because they cannot afford it would be right.”