Bill Clinton: “I guess the two things I want to hammer home are these: The trustees on which the Republican Congress have relied in…”

“I guess the two things I want to hammer home are these: The trustees on which the Republican Congress have relied in saying that the Medicare Trust Fund is in trouble recommend an expenditure of between $90 billion and $100 billion to bail out the Trust Fund over the next 7 years. That's in Medicare. That's not $270 billion; that's between $90 billion and $100 billion. I have proposed at around $120 billion, to ask the providers to do some things that will save money in both Part A and Part B of Medicare. But the premium costs to elderly people that go into Part B are all going into that general budget to fund the balanced budget tax cut plan. The second point I want to make about Medicaid is, 4 percent inflation sounds like a lot, because we now have inflation down at an all-time low for the last 30, 40 years in America, down to about 2 percent and medical inflation down to 4 and 4\1/2\ percent. The problem is, if you live in a State where--let's say you kept medical inflation to 4\1/2\ percent for 7 years, let's just say you could do it. That's 4\1/2\ percent per person, and that includes young people as well as older people, and that assumes no population growth. So if you're Florida and you have population growth and most of your health care goes to elderly people, we know that the older you get, the more health care you access, so the inflation will always be more there. So that's why these numbers simply won't work and will have to be modified and why we must reduce the size of these cuts in order to achieve a balanced budget in a way that reflects our obligations across generational lines and across income lines. You just need to remember those two big points, and everything else flows from that. Now, you know more about this than I do, so I'd like to stop now and hear from you and let you say whatever you'd like to say or ask whatever questions you'd like to ask in whatever order you want to proceed. Who would like to go first? Governor Chiles. Let the ladies go.”