Charles Norwood: “we need to talk a little bit about the specifics. I think that, if there is anything good that has come out of the…”

“we need to talk a little bit about the specifics. I think that, if there is anything good that has come out of the Committee on Commerce markup over the last 2 days, at least we have the Democrats admitting that part A of the trust fund is in fact going bankrupt in 7 years. That is the best we can get out of them. They will admit that the hospital part of the fund, that paid for by payroll taxes, is doing broke in the year 2002. They say to us, however: Well, you do not need to save $270 billion because part B, which is the part paid basically for physician services, is just great. It is fine. It is doing super. Well, patients today pay 31.5 percent of their part of the premium in part B. Guess who pays the 68.5 percent? The Treasury, the American people. That is subsidized. We are glad to do that as long as we can. We want to help people as much as the other side does. But, my colleagues, I will have to tell you, the part that comes out of the Federal Treasury, that 68.5 percent, is growing unbelievably out of control. And think of this: That Treasury that they never considered that this country can ever run out of money, that is the Treasury that owes $5 trillion. This is the Treasury that borrows a trillion dollars every 4 years, if we do not change what they are doing. We are going to be borrowing a trillion dollars every 3 years when we hit the 21st century.…”