Sherrod Brown: “I rise in support of the Stark amendment. This whole Tom Scully issue is a sorry page in a sordid chapter in…”

“I rise in support of the Stark amendment. This whole Tom Scully issue is a sorry page in a sordid chapter in congressional history. Think about this whole process of the Medicare bill passing this Congress if this new law that seniors, most seniors I know, think was foisted on them, this bill written by the drug industry and the insurance industry. The vote to pass Medicare was taken in the middle of the night. The debate started at midnight. The vote was taken at 3 o'clock. The roll call, unprecedented in congressional history, was kept open for 2 hours and 55 minutes until Republican leadership could twist arms all over this House floor back in the cloakroom; waking up the President in the middle of the night; trying to change Republican votes; trying to literally bribe at least one Republican Member of Congress, who talked about it on radio the next day; the millions of dollars in campaign contributions that were used to pass this Medicare bill. Tens of millions of dollars went to President Bush's reelection from the drug industry and the insurance. Tens of millions of dollars went into Republican leadership campaign coffers from the drug industry and insurance industry.”