Pete Domenici: “We have in our files a letter from the Congressional Budget Office that says if you do not do something about part A…”

“We have in our files a letter from the Congressional Budget Office that says if you do not do something about part A, the Medicare trust fund, in 10 years--10 years--it will be $440 billion in the red. Now, you have been talking about whether we ought to do something or not based upon what we understand the facts to be. It seems to me that what the President is doing--and yesterday I gave the President's budget an award. I crowned it with a new award. It is going to get the Oscar for fiction. The Oscar for fiction. Let me ask you if you do not think this is a marvelous fiction in this budget. While this fund is going to be $440 billion in the red, the President says, ``I want to fix that, so I will take away some of the responsibility of this trust fund.'' Right? That is what you have been telling us about. What is the responsibility in that trust fund that is growing the fastest of all of the accounts?”