Political Quotes

“Today I rise to discuss yet another revision by the administration to the new Medicare law. We all know the administration refused to give Congress an estimate on how much the Medicare bill would cost. We later found OMB estimated that the Medicare law would cost $534 billion over the next 10 years, $134 billion more than was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office. We also know the CMS actuary, Richard Foster, said the high cost projection was actually known before the final House and Senate votes on the legislation last November. But Mr. Scully told him, 'We can't let that get out.' In an e-mail to colleagues at CMS, Foster indicated he believed he might lose his job if he revealed the administration's cost estimates for the Medicare legislation. Now we are getting another round of revised numbers. In last year's debate, Republicans repeatedly claimed the new drug benefits would be completely voluntary, that seniors happy with the current Medicare system should be able to keep their coverage the way it is. In fact, we have heard President Bush say that over and over again. He said that in the State of the Union Message in 2003. But many of us warned at the time that because of the way the benefit was structured, employees with good retiree coverage would lose it. People who currently have coverage, currently have prescription drug assistance, actually could lose it.”