Christopher Shays: “In other words, a 50-percent increase. I think we would all like it, especially if we could get away with calling it a…”

“In other words, a 50-percent increase. I think we would all like it, especially if we could get away with calling it a cut. I am not proud that there are certain parts of the Government that are going up. I would like to be able to get a better handle on spending. It is just that I think if you tell the American people the truth, they will tell you to do the right thing. If you kind of obfuscate it and you distort it, they are going to give you a mixed signal back. The fact is the earned income tax credit is going up, the School Lunch Program is, the student loan, and Medicaid. Medicaid is going from $89 billion, which it was last year, to $127 billion. Medicare is growing from last year, $178 billion to $289 billion. We are going to spend 7 percent more each year on Medicare, we are going to spend 60 percent more in the seventh year than we did now. And on a per beneficiary, because everybody says we have more seniors, you have more seniors, but even if we take all the seniors, we are going from $4,800 to $7,100 in the seventh year, $7,100 per senior, a 49 percent increase in the seventh year over now. Hardly a cut.”