Today I joined with House and Senate leaders and hundreds of seniors from around the country to call on President Bush and Congressional Republicans to extend the enrollment deadline for the Medicare prescription drug plan.

Here is some of what I told the crowd:

The Bush Administration's botched implementation of the plan, itself a special interest giveaway to drug companies and HMOs, has punished seniors around the country. Now, with millions still not signed up for the confusing program and the enrollment period set to expire on Monday, Democrats are urging Bush Republicans not to charge seniors for their own incompetence.

President Bush was in Florida this morning talking about his Medicare prescription drug plan.

He called it "a good deal for American seniors." I don't know who he's been talking to, but the seniors I've met with in Nevada feel like they've gotten a raw deal instead. They're buried in paperwork, confusion and red-tape. They need help from President Bush, and all he wants to do is cut and run.

You and I know America can do better. There's no reason not to extend Monday's deadline.

Seniors are already paying too much for prescription drugs. We shouldn't force them to spend the rest of their lives paying for the confusion and red-tape of the Bush White House too.

We must: Extend the deadline. Eliminate the penalty. And fix the Medicare prescription drug program.

Five days. That's all we have. That's five days for Republicans to show America who they stand with. Not the drug companies. Not the insurance companies. But you. The American people.

That's who Democrats stand with, and it's time Bush Republicans joined us. It's not what they say they stand for, it's who they stand with that matters.