Political Quotes

“There are a lot of ways in which we can determine what our real priorities are. One of those is not what we say. I imagine virtually every Member of this Senate at some point has said they favor a comprehensive prescription drug benefit for older Americans. What really counts is not what we say because we can say all things to all people. What really counts is things such as how do we spend our money--that is a true indicator of one's priorities--or how do we spend our time--that is a true indicator of one's priority--or what things we do first. We had a period when we lived by the slogan ``Social Security first.'' We were supposed to fix Social Security to deal with that big wave of baby boomers as our first priority. We obviously didn't accept that because we didn't deal with that, and we are not dealing with it tonight. What we are saying is our first priority is to cut the tax rates for the wealthiest among us. The people who earn the largest amount of income in our society are about to get somewhere in the nature of 30 percent of this $1.35 trillion tax cut. We are saying with this amendment there is another thing that needs to be first. That is to be faithful to our commitment to provide a prescription medication benefit to our older Americans. This is the opportunity to express the sincerity of that commitment. I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment.”