Kent Conrad: “The simple question that was asked was what happens to the solvency of the Medicare trust fund if you use money out of…”

“The simple question that was asked was what happens to the solvency of the Medicare trust fund if you use money out of that trust fund to provide a prescription drug benefit? The correct answer to that question is, you reduce the solvency of the Medicare trust fund. You make the trust fund go broke even sooner. That is what this chart shows. If you raid the Medicare trust fund to provide a prescription drug benefit, you make Medicare go broke sooner. That is why we on our side have taken the fiscally responsible course. The fiscally responsible course is to pay for a prescription drug benefit but not to touch one dime of the Social Security trust fund or the Medicare trust fund because that only endangers the solvency of those trust funds. So we have proposed a fiscally responsible plan, one that protects every penny of the Social Security trust fund, every penny of the Medicare trust fund, and then, with what remains, provides a tax cut with one-third of the money; with one-third of the money provides for the high-priority domestic needs including a specific program for prescription drugs.”