Pete Stark: “we obviously have entered the world of ``Newtspeak.'' Unlike some of my colleagues, I do not have lapses in how to…”

“we obviously have entered the world of ``Newtspeak.'' Unlike some of my colleagues, I do not have lapses in how to pronounce important messages. But the Speaker of the House has decided to drag the Medicare system into the world of Newtspeak and is suggesting a program that would rethink Medicare from the ground up. If I were going to cut $200 billion out of Medicare I would have to rethink it from the ground up too because I would have destroyed it, and that is exactly what the Speaker suggested in a speech over the weekend. He said that Medicare is the opposite of how America works. And I suspect that is true, if you are a Republican American. America does not work by having Golden Rule Insurance Co., be 1 of the 10 largest donors to GOPAC and then have the whole structure of the American Congress in its first 100 days deciding to revise the Medicare system for the convenience of certain insurance companies. I would like to bring the discussion of Medicare back to earth because it is the finest system in the United States. It has less than a 3-percent overhead. And the Speaker, in his speech, suggested we ought to give American seniors more choice. There is no program in the United States that gives its beneficiaries more choice than Medicare. If you are Medicare beneficiary you can go to any physician or any hospital in the United States if you can walk, ride, hitchhike, or have the bus fare to get there.”