John McCain

Mr. McCAIN

Mr. McCAIN. My quick answer is, I don't know what the deal was, but I know the people who are in the home health care business, who will see $43 billion in cuts to their business, the funding for their business, were not there when the lobbyists showed up. We have already heard the stories of the meetings you and the majority leader have had with these people saying: Get on board or when we shape the final parameters of this bill, we are going to hurt you. We know they have been threatened.

Mr. McCAIN. As is often said, it is what it is. The Senator from Georgia has a comment.

Mr. McCAIN. They will probably be called up to Senator Reid's office very soon.

Mr. McCAIN. Let me remind the Senator from Montana, sometimes there is good news and sometimes it is bad. There was an article earlier this year where the staff of the Senator from Montana called in the high- paid lobbyists and told them not to meet with Republicans, saying that if they did, it would be treated as a hostile act. I can provide that article for the Record. I hope it is not true, but I think it is.

Mr. McCAIN. I yield to the Senator from North Carolina for a question and then the Senator from Tennessee.

Mr. McCAIN. It seems to me, yes. I yield to the Senator from Tennessee.

Mr. McCAIN. It is a lot of fun, isn't it?

Mr. McCAIN. Based on the principle that a fight not joined is a fight not enjoyed.

Mr. McCAIN. I do not understand it. Perhaps my other colleagues can explain it better. I also want to return for a second to the question of the Senator from Montana. The AMA is a classic example. When I go back to Arizona and talk to doctors and providers, they say: What is going on? You made a deal with the lobbyists. That is my answer to you. You made a deal with the lobbyists--not the home health care providers, not the nurses, not the doctors, the people who are the users of pharmaceuticals who, this year, have seen an 8- to 9-percent increase in the cost of prescription drugs--because your deal is going to protect them. My answer to you is, I don't know what you bought that letter for, but it was probably a pretty high price. The Senator from----

Mr. McCAIN. I know the answer to it. I just gave you the answer. I yield to the Senator from Wyoming.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, how much time remains?

Mr. McCAIN. The salary of William B. Novelli, who has since stepped down--an old friend--last year was $1,797,751. Mr. Tauzin, a pharmaceutical research and manufacturers lobbyist, only made $1.5 million last year. Scott Serota, of BlueCross BlueShield, made $1.6 million. Chicken feed. I yield to the Senator from Utah.

Mr. McCAIN. I ask the Senator from New Hampshire very quickly, is it your understanding that AARP does sell health insurance and Wal-Mart sells health insurance?

Mr. McCAIN. Then would it make sense they would be included in the amendment to modify the limit on excessive remuneration paid by certain health insurance providers to set the limit at the same level as the salary of the President of the United States? Wouldn't the CEO of Wal- Mart and the head of AARP, who only made $1.8 million last year, fall under that umbrella?

Mr. McCAIN. The Senator from Georgia.

Mr. McCAIN. The Senator from Tennessee.

Mr. McCAIN. I thank the Senator from Tennessee. I am very reluctant to take a trip down memory lane again. Could I say, one of the phrases throughout the campaign was: If you like the insurance policy you have, you can keep it. You tell me how people who now have Medicare Advantage can keep it under this proposal? It is impossible. Maybe the other side is right. Maybe these reductions have to be made in Medicare Advantage. Maybe those changes have to be made. I don't happen to agree, although cost savings should be there. But no one can believe that you can keep the same Medicare Advantage policy that 11 million seniors in America have today under this proposal. It is impossible. The Senator from Florida.

Mr. McCAIN. Thanks to our crack staff who are a good example of the success of work release programs, I remind my friend from Montana, a Rollcall article as of June 11: Top aides to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus called a last-minute, pre-emptive strike on Wednesday with a group of prominent Democratic lobbyists, warning them to advise their clients not to attend a meeting with Senate Republicans set for Thursday. Russell Sullivan-- Whom I don't happen to know-- the top staffer on Finance, and Jon Selib, Baucus' chief of staff, met with a bloc of more than 20 contract lobbyists, including several former Baucus aides. Who have made a nice transition. ``They said, `Republicans are having this meeting and you need to let all of your clients know if they have someone there, that will be viewed as a hostile act,' '' said a Democratic lobbyist who attended the meeting. ``Going to the Republican meeting will say, `I'm interested in working with Republicans to stop health care reform,' '' the lobbyist added. Again, PhRMA, the New York Times, again my favorite. Tauzin, the $1.5-million-per-year representative of PhRMA said: ``We were assured: `We need somebody to come in first. If you come in first, you will have a rock-solid deal,' '' Billy Tauzin, the former Republican House member from Louisiana . . . said. ``Who is ever going to get into a deal with the White House again if they don't keep their word? You are just going to duke it out instead.'' They cut a deal. That is, again, in answer to the Senator from Montana, that is probably how they got the letter, the same way Tauzin wrote his letter. The majority leader--the minority leader, hopefully majority leader soon.

Mr. McCAIN. The Senator from North Carolina.

Mr. McCAIN. Wouldn't that mean that AARP executive would naturally fall under the Lincoln amendment?

Mr. McCAIN. The Senator from Utah?

Mr. McCAIN. Dr. Barrasso from Wyoming.

Mr. McCAIN. And put more people in the hospital. The Senator from Tennessee.

Mr. McCAIN. Not to mention the chief executives of the pharmaceutical companies. Why wouldn't we want to bring them in on it? After all, they are paying for lobbyists at $1.7 million every year to cut these deals at the White House that they describe on the front page of the New York Times. I would hope the Senator would be glad to modify her amendment to include all these other people who have gotten extremely wealthy-- PhRMA, an 8-percent increase in drug prices in the last year. Again, I refer to the New York Times. Anyone else? Senator Burr. Mr. President, how much time remains?

Mr. McCAIN. Senator Burr will wrap it up.