Steve Buyer: “I want to thank some of my colleagues for their vision back in 2003. They recognized that Congress does a good job…”

“I want to thank some of my colleagues for their vision back in 2003. They recognized that Congress does a good job talking about Medicare and the concerns about the future, but they realize that very few are very committed to addressing Medicare's challenges. We, as a Congress, came together and worked with President Clinton in the 1990s when we did the Balanced Budget Act; and at that time, we even realized that Medicare was growing, the growing senior population was going to be a tremendous challenge to us; and in 2003 a small group of Members of Congress, they put in trigger legislation, and now this trigger, as the chairman said, goes into effect if the Medicare board of trustees certifies in two consecutive years that 45 percent of Medicare spending will come from general revenues in any of the upcoming 6 years. Last year, the trustees certified this Medicare spending level; and again this year, they have certified that the spending is exorbitant and that the trigger has now been hit. As directed by law, the President had no choice. He sent legislation to Congress to address this spending. We in Congress have a responsibility to the American people to act on the President's proposal. Unfortunately, last year my Democrat colleagues tried to remove this trigger so that they can continue to put off addressing the unsustainable cost of our Medicare program.”