Political Quotes

“There will be $6 billion spent on our side of the aisle to do the things about which we are concerned. What? Allow the competitive model to work, allow the new blueprint for Medicare to be successful, starting in 2009, because that is when the money is available, but what Jon Kyl and so many others on this side of the aisle have been concerned about is in this amendment. If my colleagues want to give competition a chance, this is the amendment they vote for. On that side of the aisle, what is $6 billion? For chronic care and disease management. Senator Kennedy has worked on this tirelessly. Five percent of Medicare recipients consume 50 percent of the Medicare benefits. What we need in the fee-for-service plan is programs for disease management and chronic illness management. As the Senator from Massachusetts said to me just a few minutes ago, nowhere else will we be able to find $6 billion to do this very important, cost-saving, quality improvement to the basic Medicare system. It is what both sides want. We have come together and we hope we will get strong support for this amendment.”