George Miller: “I have here a copy of the Medicare trustees report. They make it very clear that unless changes are made, Medicare will…”

“I have here a copy of the Medicare trustees report. They make it very clear that unless changes are made, Medicare will be insolvent. They also make a series of recommendations of minor extensions of current law that will make it solvent to the year 2010. What the Medicare trustees do not recommend in this report is raiding the Medicare account to give tax breaks to the wealthy. The Medicare trustees do not recommend, as the Republicans plan to do, to take $270 billion out of Medicare and give it to the wealthiest people in this country. What the Medicare trustees recommend is that we reform the Medicare system to extend its life, not raid the system to give a handout to the wealthiest people in this country. However, that is what the Republican plan is; not fixing Medicare, not reforming Medicare, but raiding Medicare, using the trustees' report as cover so that they can pass on a tax cut to the wealthiest people in this country. We are fully prepared to reform Medicare. We are not prepared to raid Medicare.”