Jack Kingston: “last year 67-year-old Sarah Rutherford of Brunswick, Georgia was very distraught about her health care, because she knew…”

“last year 67-year-old Sarah Rutherford of Brunswick, Georgia was very distraught about her health care, because she knew that in April 1995 the Clinton Medicare trustees said Medicare was going to go bankrupt if we did not do anything about it. After many struggles in Congress we finally passed a bipartisan bill that cut down on Medicare fraud, gave seniors more choices, and increased spending on Medicare for people like Ms. Rutherford from $5,000 to $7,000. Most importantly it created a bipartisan tax force to look at Medicare not just for the next election but for the next generation, to correct Medicare for the next 5 or 10 years. This bipartisan commission is working and working very hard. Now in an apparent desperation attempt to get the focus off the White House, the President has come up with a new entitlement on Medicare to say, and listen to this, in his own words, he will be qualified for Medicare in 3 or 4 years. When the President of the United States retires, he will be able to go on Medicare. I say, ``Mr. President, go ahead and retire, but stay away from Ms. Rutherford's Medicare.''”