Political Quotes

“The reality is that nothing important in the Congress gets done unless it is bipartisan. It is just that simple. What Senator Snowe and I have said repeatedly is that we want to get beyond some of the squabbling that goes on in Washington, DC, and really come together as a Congress, across the political aisle, and get prescription drug coverage added to the Medicare program. I think it is especially important now to hear from the Nation's senior citizens. For the last few months, we have been hearing from all of these beltway experts. Some of them, as Senator Snowe mentioned, have actually said seniors don't need these benefits. They say, well, this isn't a very serious problem, in spite of the fact that we have more than 20 percent of the Nation's elderly spending $1,000 a year out of pocket on their prescription medicine. We have some of these self-styled experts in Washington, DC, going to conferences and programs and saying seniors really don't need this coverage. So what we want to do is take this debate about prescription drug coverage and the need to assist seniors out of the beltway, get it out beyond Washington, DC, and start hearing from seniors and their families.”