[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8417-8418]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




BUSH ADMINISTRATION WAS WRONG TO FORCE SENIORS INTO A DRUG PLAN BY MAY 
                                   15

  (Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, Republicans were dead wrong to force 
American seniors to pick a private drug plan by May 15.
  Choosing the right plan is not easy for any of us. Seniors had dozens 
of plans to choose from. In Nevada alone, we had 44 plans. But this 
decision was made even more difficult by an incompetent Bush 
administration that did not give seniors accurate information.
  The nonpartisan GAO conducted an investigation which concluded 
seniors

[[Page 8418]]

were receiving bad information 60 percent of the time on critical 
questions concerning which drug plan cost the least based on a senior's 
prescription drug needs. One in five seniors are now actually paying 
more for their drugs than they did before they signed up. Seniors 
received bad information from the Bush administration, and based on 
this bad information, they made a very bad decision.
  House Democrats wanted to extend the deadline until the end of the 
year, giving seniors more time and preventing an unfair penalty tax 
from taking effect. House Republicans refused to join us in this 
effort, and now millions of seniors will unfortunately pay the price.

                          ____________________