Christopher Shays: “On Medicaid, we are increasing spending from $95 billion to $140 billion. My colleague may call that a cut but it is…”

“On Medicaid, we are increasing spending from $95 billion to $140 billion. My colleague may call that a cut but it is not. It is an increase in spending. We increased Medicare from $196 billion to $284 billion. We are increasing Medicare. My colleague took a chart and then proceeded to mislead, in my judgment, the facts. Medicare is growing from $196 to $284 billion. That is not a cut. It is a 45-percent increase in spending. Medicaid is going from $95 billion to $104 billion. The student loan program is going from $24 billion to $36 billion. We do have a cut, $500 tax cut for children for families making under $100,000. We pay for that tax cut. It is not like 1981, like my colleague would try to imply. We pay for it. We set aside the money by making further reductions in the budget. Mr. Chairman, this coalition budget spends more, It raises more money in revenue. It goes after senior citizens by going and paying them less in their Social Security benefits.”