April 3, 2001 Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, what a difference a few hours makes. What a dramatic transformation. When we proposed this morning a prescription drug benefit and the funding for it of $311 billion, the other side said: There the Democrats go again. All they want to do is spend money. But here we are at 4:30 in the afternoon and the Republicans are back. And what do they want to do? They want to spend almost the identical amount of money. What has occurred here is absolutely fascinating. There has been a transformation. It has been really quite remarkable. All of this morning the Republican line was, Oh, the Democrats just want to spend money. But by 4:30 in the afternoon the Republicans want to spend the same money. The difference is they want to raid the Medicare trust fund, and we want to protect the Medicare trust fund. We want a prescription drug benefit directly and clearly out of surpluses outside of the trust funds. Let me show you why the proposal of our friends on the other side will put us right into the trust funds. This chart shows the surpluses available under the Republican budget proposal year by year. As you can see, in the year 2005, there is only $7 billion available before they are into the Medicare trust fund. They are here proposing $300 billion of expenditures for a prescription drug benefit. When you divide $300 billion by the 10 years covered, that is about $30 billion a year. If they use $30 billion in the year 2005 for a prescription drug benefit, guess what. They are using Medicare trust fund money to fund a prescription drug benefit. What is wrong with that? That way leads to bankruptcy of the Medicare trust fund at an earlier date. That leads to insolvency of the Medicare trust fund at an earlier date. That is why our amendment is superior. It is better fiscally. It is better for a prescription drug benefit because we will not permit raiding the Medicare trust fund to fund a prescription drug benefit. We protect every penny of the Social Security trust fund, every penny of the Medicare trust fund, and we fund a prescription drug benefit--the $300 billion they are talking about--out of what is remaining. They are funding the Medicare prescription drug benefit out of the trust fund. It is just as clear as it can be. This amendment ought to be relabeled the ``Grassley Raid the Medicare Trust Fund Amendment.'' That is what we ought to call it because that is what it does. I yield the floor.