Bill Delahunt: “Well, there is only so much money. The pie is not infinite, and the pie gets bigger around here because this…”

“Well, there is only so much money. The pie is not infinite, and the pie gets bigger around here because this administration and this Congress authorize the borrowing of money that we will have to pay back in the future with interest to China, to India, to the OPEC nations, and to other investors. So there is nothing left, other than the rhetoric that we hear, to invest in the priorities that we believe the American people would embrace such as innovation. Let me just cite one example, if I can. This is a report by The Washington Post less than a month ago, and remember, Democrats have had nothing to do with this because we are barred by Republicans from participating in the behind-closed-door negotiations to establish those priorities. Think of what a democratic process that is. Let me read to you: ``House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill,'' this was their effort to save money, ``agreed on a change . . . that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.'' {time} 2115 One version would have targeted private HMOs participating in Medicare by changing the formula that governs reimbursement, lowering the payments to those insurance companies by $26 billion over the next decade.…”