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Congressional Budget for the United States Government for the Fiscal Year 2006 - Continued

Date: March 17, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Senior Citizens Taxes Government Budget and Spending


CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2006--Continued

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, the effect of this amendment is obviously to take the reconciliation process out of the budget. The reconciliation process is going to guarantee to the Senate the opportunities to get things done that need to be done without making tax issues a political football. That tax policy was made in 2001 and 2003 to keep that current law. We have seen too many times that laws that have widespread political support are filibustered and do not get passed.

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am surprised that there are so many wise Members of this Senate who know exactly how the prescription drug bill is going to work when it doesn't even start until January 1, 2006. We took language in Democratic proposals on this subject and put them in a bipartisan bill so that there was a consensus of what ought to be done. Now they want to strike them out.

The chief actuary and OMB says this will not save money. It will not increase competition because we have competition written into this by the plans competing against each other. Don't strike that out.

http://thomas.loc.gov/

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