Political Quotes

“Thank you for yielding to me to speak on this very important issue. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from Louisiana has said, we really have to talk about saving Medicare. Medicare is under assault in a way that it has never been under assault before. The gentleman from Louisiana mentioned quite accurately that the President's health care bill passed 2 years ago would take $500 billion from Medicare spending on our seniors who are currently receiving Medicare--$500 billion. Now, how are they going to do that? What are we not going to deliver to those seniors? Well, the way it's done is the President appoints the Independent Payment Advisory Board, 15 appointed, not elected members, no appeal from their judgment. {time} 1900 What they're going to do is they're going to say in a year when it looks like we're going to spend a little more on Medicare than the country can afford by the budget, we're going to decide what can and can't be delivered. The President's budget he just released this week makes it even worse because it sets even a lower budget target for Medicare spending. And, of course, the President doesn't even deal with the issue that's before the House this week, which is what are we going to do about physician payments. Now, Mr.…”