[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17137]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLANS

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, after the Bush press conference yesterday, 
there are now competing prescription drug plans from the candidates. 
But for the elderly or the baby-boomers, the competition is already 
over.
  The Bush plan is a fundamental, third-rail change from universally 
available benefits the way Social Security and Medicare have always 
been to a low-income benefit more like welfare. If they have little 
money, they get it; otherwise, they do not.
  I represent a lot of lower-income seniors who will be taken care of 
by either both the Bush or the Gore plan. But I am not about to support 
a plan that leaves out my many middle-income seniors who are in the 
same boat when it comes to expensive drugs.
  Governor Bush cannot restructure Medicare by restructuring the middle 
class out of it.

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