Lizzie Fletcher: “the Democrats are misleading the American public over the debate on prescription drug coverage for our seniors, and I am…”

“the Democrats are misleading the American public over the debate on prescription drug coverage for our seniors, and I am very disappointed to see our friends on the other side of the aisle once again employing the politics of demagoguery and fear. To illustrate to my Democratic friends how our plan will help States, in Kentucky, which has 615,000 Medicare beneficiaries, a half of those seniors live at 175 percent below the poverty level. In Kentucky, HHS estimates that the State savings under our plan would be $549 million in the fiscal years 2005 through 2012. In a time when seniors and State governments are experiencing financial difficulties, our plan provides seniors with an affordable benefit to Medicare and immediate savings. States also benefit by saving about $40 billion estimated over the next several years. Our plan is the only fiscally responsible choice for both seniors and government and should be supported next week as we bring it to the House floor. The Democrat plan, it remains an $800 billion pie-in-the-sky boondoggle which misleads seniors and would require higher and higher taxes. So in a time when seniors deserve honesty and transparency, I encourage them to join our efforts to provide a responsible, reasonable, and double relief for our seniors' prescription drug needs now.”