[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19706-19707]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  DEBT PAY DOWN AND PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of issues on our plate, 
but there are two in particular that the American people are demanding 
action on. The American people want us to take advantage of our current 
prosperity to pay off the multi-trillion dollar public debt that the 
Democrats racked up in their 30-year stranglehold on Congress, and they 
want to do something about prescription drugs. No senior should ever 
have to choose between putting food on the table and filling 
prescriptions when the doctor gives them.
  Well, we are paying down the debt all right. By the end of the next 
year, we will have paid off a half a trillion dollars on the national 
debt, and done it while protecting 100 percent of Social Security and 
Medicare Trust Fund surpluses. But the Democrats and the President are 
blocking any progress on the prescription drug issue. You see, as long 
as they can keep us from implementing our plan, and it is a good one, 
they can keep accusing us of having done nothing.
  Well, the American people need to know we have acted on the 
prescription

[[Page 19707]]

drugs issue. We passed a plan that is effective, fair and 
comprehensive. We passed a plan that would give seniors solid coverage, 
even on catastrophic expenses, something Al Gore's plan would make them 
wait years for. But Democrats are blocking it because they do not want 
Republicans to get any credit for it.

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