Orrin Hatch: “I have sat here for hours now and listened to some of the comments by our colleagues on the other side. They must not…”

“I have sat here for hours now and listened to some of the comments by our colleagues on the other side. They must not have paid any attention to what this bill is all about or any attention to what the conferees, who worked day and night, did to put this bill together in a bipartisan way. They must not have paid any attention to the words in the bill or paid any attention to their respective caucus meetings where we discussed the aspects of it. When a Senator said this bill is being ramrodded through, I want to make it clear that we have been trying to improve Medicare for 40 years, especially in the last 10, 15 years. That is hardly ramrodding it through. This is it. This is the last chance to have prescription drug benefits for our seniors. It is amazing to me how many on the other side just want to say no to anything: No to judges. No to prescription drug benefits unless they are way out of sight as far as expenses go. No to any possible private sector improvements that might possibly work. No to all the ideas that Democrats and Republicans have worked on, 7 o'clock in the morning meetings, 3 o'clock to midnight, in the afternoons, day after day after day, week after week. We were not doing that for our fun. We were not doing that for political reasons. We were not doing that to try to hurt one side or the other or to make political points on one side or the other.”