Pete Stark: “I understand what is behind this. I am not a lawyer, I will never be a judge, but this is really the Republicans'…”

“I understand what is behind this. I am not a lawyer, I will never be a judge, but this is really the Republicans' attempt to prevent themselves from being sued as a party under a class action under RICO by the 42 million beneficiaries of Medicare whose plan they are plotting to destroy. As we sit here today, the Committee on the Budget is giving the Republican budget in the office building, and they are going to tell you how they are going to give 1 year, $8 billion, to Medicare. They have depleted the entire Medicare trust fund, and this 1 year, $8 billion, is contingent on privatizing Medicare, taking the President's reform, which is a voucher system, and destroying Medicare, as the Republicans are on record as wanting to do time and time again, starting with Newt Gingrich. So they have given us $8 billion, or $40 billion over 5 years, if we privatize the system. That is to cover a drug benefit which ought to cost $70 billion a year by any standards. That does not allow us to correct the inequity in physicians' payments which costs $12 billion a year. This does not take care of hospital inflation, children's hospitals, teaching hospitals, cancer centers, preventive screening. This is an obscene hoax on the American people. It is just one more indication of protecting the corporate interests and the corporate insurance companies, for instance, who provide Medicare benefits from any class action. They will not let us have the Patients' Bill of Rights.…”