Everyone wants a Medicare prescription provision. Each party wants their own - Two Parties' Plans on Prescriptions Falter in Senate

Today's votes, the most significant in a two-week Senate debate on prescription drugs, were the latest illustration of the deep philosophical differences over the proper role of government in meeting one of the nation's greatest social needs.

Democrats wanted the government to establish uniform drug benefits, while Republicans wanted the government to pay subsidies to private insurers to provide coverage for drug costs, with insurers allowed to vary premiums and other details.

"We are not going to give up," said the Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota. "Everything is on the table. If we can find a role for the private sector, for the insurance industry, I would not be averse to doing that."

Likewise, when asked if he would consider a proposal to provide drug coverage just to Medicare beneficiaries with low incomes or high drug expenses, Mr. Daschle said, "I'm not averse to that."

But Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said he would prefer not to make such concessions in a program that provides health insurance to virtually all the elderly, regardless of income.

So instead of compromise we have posturing. Instead of compassion we have politics. But then, this is what we expected.