Porter Goss: “the Medicare trustees, including three Clinton Cabinet officials, have released their annual report. It is 3 months late…”

“the Medicare trustees, including three Clinton Cabinet officials, have released their annual report. It is 3 months late and the diagnosis is not good. The part A trust fund is going to be bankrupt in 2001, a full year earlier than was reported last year. Those are the facts. Interestingly enough, this report came just days after the Senate minority leader and a top Clinton Cabinet official accused Republicans of playing politics with Medicare. It is serious, folks. We have a problem. Mr. Speaker, during my work on the Kerry commission I saw firsthand the consequences of failing to reform Medicare. I was also pleased to work in a bipartisan fashion with colleagues on both sides of the aisle trying to find a long-term solution for this problem. Responsible people did. Last year Congress sent that responsible solution of real Medicare reform to the President, and the President vetoed it. I say that it is time for the President to stop the mediscare, stop the medigoguery, encourage the people in his party on that side of the aisle to stop doing it and get to responsible solutions. We have one. We need to identify it and we need it now.”