White House Stakeout with Senate Leaders Following Meeting with President Bush
HEADLINE: WHITE HOUSE STAKEOUT WITH SENATE LEADERS FOLLOWING MEETING WITH PRESIDENT BUSH
SUBJECT: MEDICARE
PARTICIPANTS: SENATE MAJORITY LEADER BILL FRIST (R-TN); SENATOR MAX BAUCUS (D-MT); SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY (R-IA); SENATOR JOHN BREAUX (D-LA); SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME); SENATOR JIM BUNNING (R-KY); SENATOR JAMES JEFFORDS (I-VT); SENATOR MARY LANDRIEU (D-LA); SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS (R-AL); SENATOR TOM CARPER (D-DE)
BODY:
SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, we had a very good meeting with the president. The president encouraged us to move ahead, but was very complementary about how far we have come. And we expressed thankfulness for presidential leadership going back several months where the president promised a maximum amount of money, 400 billion, and some political capital that he was willing to put into it, and I think he deserves some credit for bringing us where we are. But more importantly, we've got a lot of bipartisan cooperation in the United States Senate, and that's what's moving this forward. And I think we've got a few hurdles to overcome before we get to final passage, but I think all of those can be worked out because there's a spirit of cooperation to work those out.
SEN. BAUCUS: You know, this is truly historic, that is, providing prescription drug benefit to seniors. And that's why senators and House members on both sides of the aisle are working so closely together to try to make this work. Nobody wants to be responsible for preventing this legislation from passing. And there's a tremendous sense of cooperation -- I've never seen anything like this in some time; both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue; both political parties; both houses of Congress -- because we all know the importance of getting prescription drug benefits for seniors.
Now, it's extremely complicated working this out. It's not easy. It's uncharted territory. But we all want to make it work. And for that reason, it is going to work, and we'll build on it over the years as we try to provide even better prescription drug benefits to seniors. But the thanks go to -- at this point, we haven't crossed the finish line yet -- to first the president for pushing hard, setting the right tone; second to all those who have worked so hard the past several years -- Senator Breaux, of course Senator Frist, Senator Rockefeller, Olympia Snowe. There are so many who have worked so very, very hard. And the real thanks go to them for plowing the earlier ground, and we're now at the point where Senator Grassley, the chairman of the committee, and I are trying to help put that all together. And it's going to be a great day not too many days from today when we finally pass the bill and it's on the president's desk.
SEN. FRIST: Let me -- this is Bill Frist. The president I think really hit the nail on the head a few minutes ago when he talked to a bipartisan groups of United States senators when he said we'd come a long way. It was just a few years ago that we were talking about "Medi-scare," where seniors, when they would look at government trying to address their needs, would be frightened. And now, instead of "Medi-scare," the tone is Medi-"care," capturing that word, "care." And indeed, it gives me a great deal of pride to see the United States Senator working in a bipartisan way, working together in the very best of what this body has to offer so that seniors, when they look at what we're doing, can say, "My life is going to be a little bit better. What I'm going to get out of all this is true health care security. I will be able to choose a plan that better suits my individual needs. I am going to get help. I'm going to get help with the important aspect of my health care, and that is prescription drugs."
As we just heard from Senator Grassley and Baucus, we have a long way to go. But I am very hopeful that 13, 14 -- 13 or maybe 12 days from now, we will be voting on the bill that will receive 70, 75, maybe even 80 votes, a bipartisan bill that will be to the benefit of all American people.
(Cross talk.)
SEN. BREAUX: Well, let me just echo my colleagues. I think that the only way that Congress will not pass a Medicare reform and prescription drug bill this year for our nation's seniors is we get into some kind of a political fight over who did it. And I think there's enough credit to go around. Both parties have done something that we need to do much more of, and that is to work together in a bipartisan fashion. The 16-5 vote in the Senate Finance Committee shows there's huge bipartisan support for this legislation. With the president's help and the leaders in the Congress, we'll get this done, and we'll get it done this year.
SEN. COLLINS: Thanks to the leadership of our president and a bipartisan spirit of cooperation, we have an unprecedented opportunity to really make a difference for our senior citizens. I represent the state of Maine, where many of our seniors are really struggling to meet their drug costs. They're facing costs of 300 to $400 a month for their prescription drugs, and they're living on very limited incomes. So I'm really excited that we are at the point of having this unprecedented expansion in Medicare that will help make a real difference for our seniors and their good health.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Well, I'm the tripartisan of the group, and just want to say that it can happen. We found that when you all work together on such an important piece of legislation as Medicare, that you can find a solution. And I want to commend all of those that were involved, especially Chuck Grassley and Bill Frist from our part, and Max Baucus. Without their tremendous efforts to get us all together, it just wouldn't have happened. And John Breaux was, from my aspect, of course, a very important element.
Thank you.
SEN. BUNNING: Let me tell you just one thing that I have seen since I've been on the Finance Committee, and I think John Breaux brought it out better than anyone else, is that the bipartisan approach, particularly taking care of the neediest of needy, that is in this bill, from the 73 percent of poverty right up to 160 percent of poverty, and even below that, this bill focuses on those folks better than any bill that we've seen in the Senate since I've been here five years.
And so, that is the reason that there was a 16 to 5 vote, because it is a good, strong bill for our most needy seniors. And if Susan Collins in Maine has needy people, believe me, Kentucky has a lot more of them. And so, that's why I'm very pleased with the way the bill turned out.
SEN. LANDRIEU: And I would just add that this is truly a victory for persistence and dedication to a subject that is complex and difficult. And I guess from a unique perspective, being the junior senator for Louisiana, I want to say how proud I am of the senior senator from Louisiana for his persistence, and just working it and working it, and trying to keep the team together. He did a magnificent job along with everyone else. And I hope that we have the building blocks to a good plan that we can perfect over time. But the important thing is to get something on the books that we can begin working with. And this accomplishes that goal.
SEN. SESSIONS: My mother has a $300-per-month-plus drug bill. It's something that she is able to handle, but she watches her pennies very, very closely. A lot of people simply are not able to afford drugs that can prolong their lives and avoid them having more serious complications, including surgeries. And we can -- we're at a point where we can do that and fix that. We came close several years. We did not make it to the president. And our leadership in the Senate has moved this forward. I'm excited about it.
All of us have certain angst. We're looking at the bill; we wish we could do a little bit here and a little bit there. I think this bill is going to continue to go forward, though, with strong bipartisan support. And I believe that there will be no doubt that this is a historic step, because we're not doing this now. We're going from zero to virtually full payment of drugs for those who are poor.
SEN. CARPER: I'm Tom Carper from Delaware. I used to be a governor, and now I'm a senator. As governor of my state, we put in place a prescription drug program for people 65 and over whose income was up to 200 percent of poverty. There are a couple dozen other states that also offer prescription drug programs for their elderly. There are thousands of companies which offer to their pensioners a prescription drug program.
One of the areas of this bill that is still a work in progress is the consideration how do we make sure that states like Delaware or other states that are funding a prescription drug program for their seniors don't simply walk away from that commitment? How do we make sure that employers, private sector employers, many of them large manufacturing companies with large legacy costs for pensions and health care, how do we make sure that they don't take a walk with the introduction of a new prescription drug program for the folks that they're already covering?
And there's plenty of impetus within states to cut costs, to shift costs; this could be a great one for states; plenty of impetus for major employers in our state, and not so major employers, to find a way to walk away from their prescription drug costs for their pensioners.
We have to find a way in this bill to provide an incentive for states and for other employers, private sector employers especially, to continue to provide prescription coverage for their seniors, because if they take a walk, this is going to be a far more expensive program for taxpayers than we ever would have imagined.
Q Senator Grassley, how contentious do you expect the conference on this bill to be, and what do you think will be the toughest issue?
SEN. GRASSLEY: I don't think it -- I wouldn't describe it as potentially contentious. I would describe it as lots of differences between the House and the Senate. We're all trying to accomplish the same goal. It wouldn't be as if we had different goals to accomplish. And I think it's going to take a period of time, though, to work out the differences. And I say that, that it probably ought to, because this is a brand new program, the first expansion of Medicare in 35 years, and we want to be careful how we do it. And we're being careful on the floor of the Senate. But the last shot is conference and --
Q Are you optimistic you can get the conference done by the end of July?
SEN. GRASSLEY: We're looking at that, but that would not be a final decision today. But I think it would be nice if we could have it done by then. But I think we need to have -- be satisfied we have a good product, and not just be satisfied with meeting some artificial date.
Q And the toughest issue, what's the most contentious issue you expect in conference?
SEN. GRASSLEY: I would expect that the most contentious issue would be the difference between the House and the Senate, one, on 50- 50 -- a 50 percent subsidy versus the 80 percent subsidy in the House; and then the House means testing versus the universality of our program.
Q Thank you very much.
SEN. FRIST: All right, thank you all. Appreciate it.