Pete Domenici: “Now, the Republican, GOP balanced budget versus the budget that we offered, that we call bipartisan--when you do that…”

“Now, the Republican, GOP balanced budget versus the budget that we offered, that we call bipartisan--when you do that you get an explanation of how far we came in what we offered--and let me just describe those changes. They are as follows. From $226 billion savings in Medicare over 7 years, we proposed Medicare, Mr. President, between $154 and $168 billion. These are numbers endorsed by bipartisan groups in both the House and the Senate; from $226 to $154 and $168 billion as the parameters for a new program. Let me say, parenthetically, if you choose to do those reforms, which are substantially less, $60 billion less at the minimum, you can get there as far as the premiums to seniors with the premiums never going up beyond the $77 that the President recommended many, many months ago. So, while the Republicans moved nearly $60 billion lower in Medicare, the President, by his own numbers in the blizzard budget, reduced Medicare savings instead of increasing them, reduced the savings from $124 billion, which the President had heretofore said, in June, to $102 billion.”