Scott Walker: “Our intention on Medicare is to reform Medicare and transform the program so it can live within the bounds over the next…”

“Our intention on Medicare is to reform Medicare and transform the program so it can live within the bounds over the next 7 years of spending $1 rac{1}{2} rillion. That would in fact be an increasing kind of program, and we think we can manage that within a balanced budget, but in terms of calculating it, we are not saying that everything is going to be held at the 1995 baseline, we are simply saying that is the baseline which we use. Some things will go above that baseline, some will go below, but the fact is we are not going to use an accelerating baseline for what we are doing. In the case of Medicare, simply the demographics of the account will have it go up, so Medicare will actually be spending more in the year 2002 than it spends in 1995, but then that will be an increase.”