Political Quotes

“I am happy to join the discussion of Medicare. I think to put this in perspective that one of the first things that we need to do is to chat for just a moment about how Medicare is related to balancing the budget. I notice a lot of columnists and a lot of Congressmen will directly or indirectly relate our problem with Medicare to balancing the budget. What we are talking about here and what the trustees were talking about is part A of Medicare. That has a trust fund just like Social Security. It really has nothing to do with the budget. We make the statement that, and it is a very correct statement, that if the budget were balanced today, we would still face exactly the same problems with most Social Security and with Medicare that we face now, and so this is not a problem which is related to balancing the budget. It is true that if the budget were balanced today that we still face a problem having to do something about Medicare or it is going to be bankrupt.”