Pete Stark: “I suspect that many people will vote for this bill, but it cannot go unnoticed that the bill does not do nearly enough.…”

“I suspect that many people will vote for this bill, but it cannot go unnoticed that the bill does not do nearly enough. It is a day late and a dollar short. It does not really improve Medicare and deal with many of the providers. It merely gives the administration, hopefully, the right to correct a glitch in the way physicians are reimbursed. There is some great discussion going on that they may already have that. The fight seems to be that correcting the physician glitch will cost 43 billion bucks and the question is, Do we get billed again for that or does the administration? And does it fit, or increase the deficit or does it not? So there is no guarantee that your physician friends will get their problem corrected. There is some guarantee that the hospitals, nursing homes, rural hospitals, teaching hospitals and the uninsured will absolutely get nothing. As to the welfare reform bill, there may be a lot of blame as to why we have not reauthorized it; but in any event, since 1996, the day it was passed, the funding for welfare reform, or welfare payments in this country has dropped by 11 percent. We are not doing anything to increase it and that is tragic. Welfare reform is more than a benefit check. It is child care and job training; it is education, the very foundations of self-sufficiency.”