In a debate last night in Marin County, CA, Governor Howard Dean said many Congressional Democrats supported President George W. Bush's Medicare Prescription Drug bill in 2003, which uses the premium support model proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) for overall Medicare Reform. When I took issue with Mr. Dean's assertion that many Democrats backed Mr. Bush's reforms, he said I was wrong.
If you are one of the Marin County residents who wanted to check out who was right, here are the links to the votes on final passage of the measure in the House and Senate. It passed the House 220-215 with just sixteen Democrats voting in favor. It passed the Senate 54-44 with only eleven Democrats backing it. The other 224 Democrat Representatives and Senators voted against the prescription drug reform, which uses premium support to deliver the benefit.
