I hope, as we move forward, we will focus on that approach to modernizing Medicare and Medicaid...

we need reforms, and we need changes for Social Security.

I take it you stand by your letter, and if you could just elaborate for a moment on that issue, just to put that issue to rest once and for all.

we're not the far right who thinks that government doesn't matter and we can't be the far left that thinks we can tax and spend our way out of all of our problems, because we need to meet in the middle, streamline and consolidate our…

I chaired the Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, and I am sure you are familiar with the Deepwater Project.

the impact of that is that, not only tax payers, but other Medicare beneficiaries who are paying premiums in the fee-for-service program are actually cross-subsidizing the seniors on Medicare in the Medicare Advantage plans.

America is tired of government folks coming up and saying that a budget increase of five percent is a tough choice.

I am afraid we are not making tough choices.

And in fact, just to close out, Mr. Chairman, in your testimony you point out that in those cases where your support, the amount of your voucher does not keep pace with the market costs of health care, you may have to choose to either pay…

So once it is fully phased in, and the chairman mentioned reductions in the Medicare. So some of the savings we achieved, a significant amount of savings we achieved, were in reducing these overpayments, these huge subsidies, to the…

If you are simply transferring a Medicare beneficiary from the Medicare system into the private health market, and the growth in costs in the private health market is the same or higher than Medicare, they are not going to be paying any…

I think we should tackle this issue sooner rather than later. In fact, I think we should get to it right away.

I am trying to figure out how we get off the merry-go-round.

surveys from individuals who are in the private health care system compared to surveys who are on the Medicare system, with regard to their current access to doctors and providers, and across the board, my colleagues may remember the…

I agree. I think there is bipartisan support here, as Senator Sessions indicated in his opening comments.

I think we should push for some form of a clean water trust account that could leverage the dollars.

I really am encouraged by what the Mayor is saying in your conversations with EPA, of looking at three different sources and putting them together as a coordinated plan.

This year, we will run the fourth consecutive deficit over $1 trillion.