I sometimes wonder if the leadership of this House and the President of the United States understand the pain that is being felt by people throughout this country. I can only speak for my State and my district, but Ohio is part of the…

the seniors of this country, the senior citizens in this country need to understand that what we are dealing with here is an administration that appears to want to obliterate, to get rid of, Medicare as we know it, to make it more of a…

I was listening to my friend on the other side earlier, and the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Health indicated that those of us who oppose this bill wanted to do nothing. Well, that is so far from the truth. We had an alternative; we…

why do we not just do the right thing when it comes to this issue, just do the right thing, help all the workers who need help? I appreciate the effort of the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) to improve this program, but I cannot…

It is quite simple. I was shocked many months ago when the VA put out a memo, and I am paraphrasing, but I am true to the spirit of the memo, which basically said, too many veterans are coming in for services and it is costing us too much…

I call it the ``If they do not ask, we will not tell policy.'' If the veteran does not ask what they are entitled to receive, the VA will not proactively provide that information. I tried to work this out. I went to Secretary Principi, a…

It is not really passing a benefit. It is a bill to try to keep this government from taking something away from the veterans that they have earned. If they have served their time in the military and they are entitled to receive a pension…

if you go to Ohio, we now pay more taxes in Ohio in part because of the cuts that have been made at the Federal Government level. And across this country working people are paying more in property taxes, they are paying more in excise…

On the rich, that is right. Excuse me, but they are raising taxes or causing taxes to be raised on the working folks of this country.

one other point I pointed to throughout was a discrepancy between the administration's wanting to compensate abused Iraqi prisoners and not compensate America's abused prisoners; and then I pointed out that it sought money to pay…

I had said earlier here on the floor that this administration apparently wants to compensate Iraqi prisoners who were abused in the prison in Baghdad, and I understand why Secretary Rumsfeld has reached that conclusion, but I also pointed…

Following the exposure of the prisoner abuse in the prison in Baghdad, our Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, has said that he believes that the prisoners who were abused should be compensated by our government. Now, I do not have any…

May I, with kindness, challenge a statement my friend just made. My friend from Washington said the administration is rushing as quickly as they can to provide the armament our soldiers need. I think that is not the case. The only company…

if my friend would yield, I dare to say that this smells like a cover-up, and I think Secretary Rumsfeld has to assume responsibility. He is the Secretary of Defense of this Nation, and when he was asked, have you asked, Mr. Secretary, to…

You can start out by getting a discount of 10 percent, and in 7 days that discount can be reduced down to 5 percent. I ask the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) to clarify this, but, for example, I am a senior citizen and I have high…

They have to provide one drug in every class of medications; but there are many medications that are prescribed for high cholesterol. I can tell Members that I took one drug for high cholesterol for over a year, and it did not control my…

Absolutely, because you do not question these folks. They seem to know everything. What we are finding out is that their understanding is so immature that they are almost child-like in their fantasies. It is almost like a make-believe…

I am very glad that there are those watching us tonight and are paying attention to what we are saying because we have lots of constituents. I have lots of constituents back in Ohio certainly that are watching, and I am sure there are…

I really believe what we are dealing with here is an administration that truly does not believe in Medicare, and this effort is not going over well with our senior citizens. As my friend the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) said, the…

the history of this administration is anyone who questions is shoved aside. General Shinseki said we would need hundreds of thousands of troops. He was literally ridiculed by the Secretary of Defense and others.

Once a senior goes through all these cards and finally reaches a decision, and that is going to be difficult to do, once they reach a decision and select a particular card, they are stuck with that card for an entire year. Yet the sponsors…

Every 7 days, I am able to make those kinds of changes in the level of discount and in the drugs that are actually covered by that discount card, and yet the senior will be stuck with that particular card for an entire year. So I am locked…

I believe this is an election year scam, and America's senior citizens are going to be so confused. They are not going to know what choices to make, and we are doing it because an election is coming up in November and we want to present to…

I can tell him a mistake that he and his administration has made. They sent our young soldiers into harm's way when the war in Iraq began without adequate body armor. That is the truth. They cannot escape that fact. There were soldiers who…

something happened on the floor of the House this morning that in my judgment is shameful, shameful, because the record of an American hero who shed his blood, who earned three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star, and a Bronze Medal was referred…