Don Nickles: “I will repeat to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Finance Committee, I will work with him to try to come up…”

“I will repeat to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Finance Committee, I will work with him to try to come up with a package that can pass this Congress this year. I want it to pass, and I want it to be signed into law. To come up with a package that the administration is opposed to means it will not become law. Some of us want to alleviate some of the problems. This particular bill the Senator has asked to pass by unanimous consent, which means no Senator gets to offer any amendment, flies in the face of Senate tradition. Senate tradition has always been--I did a little homework on Medicare. Twenty-two of twenty-three significant Medicare changes passed the Finance Committee in a bipartisan fashion and passed the Senate usually with overwhelming numbers--not all the time but usually with overwhelming numbers. So I was sincere in saying let us refer it back to committee, let us have some amendments, let us have some votes, and maybe we can come up with a bipartisan package that then will have momentum to pass on the floor. I might remind my friend and colleague from Montana, my suggestion was that is the way we should do the prescription drug bill. We did not do that on prescription drugs, and we ended up with no bill. Seniors got zero, and I am afraid if we continue going down this path on the so-called Medicare adjustment give-back bill, they will end up getting zero.”