Political Quotes

“The fact is, our budget has $800 million in Medicare more than their budget. Their budget does a much better job of taking health care, Medicare dollars and shoveling them to insurance company HMOs. The President said it was only $14 billion insurance subsidies, taxpayer subsidies to insurance companies, under the Medicare bill until he signed the bill, then he acknowledged we are shoveling $46 billion in direct subsidies to insurance companies which also happen to be major political contributors to the President and to the Republican majority, not too different from drug company contributions to my friends on the other side of the aisle, the other major beneficiary of the Medicare bill. The Medicaid bill is not just a question of Republicans not reducing government spending, they are shifting the burden to the States. California loses $226 million in Medicaid funding; Florida loses $90 million; Ohio, $87 million; Michigan, $60 million, and on and on and on. Medicaid covers 70 percent of the nursing homes in this country. If we pass the Democratic substitute, we are putting America's seniors ahead of HMOs. If we pass the Republican substitute, we are leaving seniors and disabled Americans on their own.”