Political Quotes

“Let me toss out an idea or two, and let us just give folks an opportunity to see what kinds of things we are thinking about in terms of entitlements. Entitlements are something I think we need to address, and are certainly driving our deficit. Certainly one thing I have talked about back home in New Hampshire in terms of our Health Care Task Force, we believe--Medicare was introduced in 1965 and then it was projected to cost $9 billion in 1990. It actually cost $106 billion. You say what is $100 billion. That is the kind of accountability we are talking about. One of the things I would like to introduce is, why not means testing on Medicare? Why not people who are making $75,000 or more a year pay a little higher on their part B premium than maybe those that can hardly put food on their table? Would that be a reasonable proposal? Most of my seniors in my town meetings support that idea. Copayments are another idea that would make sense, and certainly getting rid of the helium reserve is something that for 40 or 45 years we have been talking about doing. The Medicare process would save $1.5 billion, the one I described. The helium reserve would be almost $1 billion.”