Pete Domenici: “Before any tax relief is provided in terms of dollar numbers, we have already used $40 billion of the non-Social…”

“Before any tax relief is provided in terms of dollar numbers, we have already used $40 billion of the non-Social Security surplus for Medicare. We say there is $40 billion. We say if you do no reform of the program, there is $20 billion. Let me repeat that. If you do no reform, there is $20 billion for prescription drugs. If you do some reform to stabilize the program, you can use the whole $40 billion for prescription drugs. That is what Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine had as the underpinnings of her approach. She wanted some reform. But she wanted to make sure, even if we could not do that, we started a prescription drug program with $20 billion. If the committee does something like the Breaux-Frist--that is a bipartisan approach--with some reform in Medicare, you understand the Medicare program will be insolvent in about 13 years.”