Political Quotes

“as I indicated yesterday, I intend to come to the Senate floor each day this week as part of an effort to build bipartisan support in the Senate for Medicare reform. It is very clear to me that there is a rare window of opportunity now for the Senate to act on this issue, a window, an opportunity I think would be a serious mistake to not exploit. We know that the Federal deficit is a bit lower than was anticipated this year, in the vicinity of $108 billion. We are seeing that there is a fairly benign economic environment. Certainly, there are still folks hurting in our country, but, overall, the economy has been positive. We know that we are a few years away from what I believe is sure to be a demographic earthquake, with many more older people in our country, and older people who need and deserve good quality health care. Right now, in much of the United States, the Medicare Program is a 30-year-old, 'Tin Lizzy'-style operation that rewards waste and penalizes frugality.”