Glenn English: “I rise tonight without any messianic pretensions to urge my colleagues to cast a vote for our seniors and support…”

“I rise tonight without any messianic pretensions to urge my colleagues to cast a vote for our seniors and support improved health care by voting for this bipartisan Medicare bill. Mr. Speaker, today we have the best, and perhaps the last, opportunity to provide America's seniors with a voluntary and affordable prescription drug benefit as a part of Medicare. This is an unprecedented expansion of an entitlement program that will make life easier and health care better for many millions of Americans. Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge this legislation is not perfect. There are things I wanted to see included that are not in the bill. Yet, I am convinced that this is the best and most realistic compromise Medicare bill that Congress has so far developed. There are some here, I realize, who would make the perfect enemy of the good. But when you strip away all of the rhetoric and the partisanship, it really comes down to this: Do you support adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, or not?”