[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 17, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H2644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PLAN B FOR MEDICARE PART D

  (Mr. BISHOP of New York asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, just because the Medicare 
enrollment deadline has passed and the President refuses to extend it, 
those of us who voted against a shortsighted Medicare bill and opposed 
this past Monday's deadline will not fade quietly away.
  We will continue to fight for seniors who need more time to choose a 
plan that is right for them. We will fight the punitive lifetime tax on 
the elderly and disabled who, through no fault of their own, have yet 
to sign up for a plan.
  And here is the ultimate irony. While the President and congressional 
Republicans never met a tax cut they didn't like, including more 
dividend and capital gains tax cuts for the already very comfortable, 
corporate tax holidays for extra-territorial income, they are imposing 
a new tax on one of the most vulnerable segments of our population: 
seniors.
  Medicare part D works just fine for the pharmaceutical companies and 
big business HMOs, but it is not working for those seniors who have yet 
to sign up for a plan and who will have to pay for it for the rest of 
their life.
  Mr. Speaker, it is long overdue that we fix this program. We need a 
plan B for part D.




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