Jack Kingston: “if we had ideas coming from 435 different Members of Congress from States all over the country, the best product would…”

“if we had ideas coming from 435 different Members of Congress from States all over the country, the best product would evolve, and that is what we want to happen because what we want the end product to be is not a Republican plan, not a Democrat plan, but an American senior citizens plan so that your mom, and dad, and grandparents, and you, and I, and our children one day can enjoy a system that is safe and secure. That is what our goal is. One of the big tragedies, when we talk about cuts, is that what we are trying to do is slow down the inflation rate. Medicare inflation last year was 11 percent. Regular health care inflation, as the gentleman from Michigan pointed out, was actually about 1 percent. What we are trying to do is get Medicare down in the 4 to 6 percent range, and if we can just slow down the growth to that degree, we will be increasing the benefits of the people $4,800 to $6,700, as the gentleman pointed out, and we will have more options for our seniors.”