Pete Domenici: “The deficit is still too big unless you decide to fill that gap with something.”

That did not reduce any beneficiaries' benefits, it just cut the amounts that providers were otherwise getting.

I think that the last point that Dr. Rivlin made you can find in the report: that our plan is more progressive than the tax code we are replacing.

We may not know all the answers that you seek of us because we did not have a lot of time to study in detail the more intricate health care issues.

I want to remind the committee again, and I will say it to you, Senator Snowe, remember, our package was put together by Democrats and Republicans, so we do not come here starting with one side or the other.