David Price: “I would like to engage the ranking member of the Committee on the Budget and perhaps also the gentleman from Washington…”

“I would like to engage the ranking member of the Committee on the Budget and perhaps also the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) in a discussion of the situation we are facing with respect to the Medicare Part A Trust Fund. We have had for some years in this body, although sometimes the political rhetoric would not indicate it, an agreement between the parties that the Social Security Trust Fund ought to be off limits, that we ought not to be using the Social Security surplus to cut taxes or to increase spending or for any other purpose, other than to reduce the debt and ensure the future of Social Security, to make certain that those benefits will be there when the baby boomers retire, when that program's cash flow reverses. I would like to ask my colleagues if there is any principled reason why we should treat the Medicare Trust Fund any differently from the Social Security Trust Fund. If anything, the Medicare Trust Fund is facing even more severe problems, even earlier than we face with Social Security.”