Frank Pallone: “Maybe. You remember before we came, the Congress had passed a catastrophic health care bill, and then, when we came…”

“Maybe. You remember before we came, the Congress had passed a catastrophic health care bill, and then, when we came, there was the clamor to repeal it and it was repealed. Essentially it reminds me of that, where the Republicans are saying we are going to give you a drug benefit, but when you look at the details, it is probably going to be a benefit that is not even worth the paper it is written on. For the next few years, everybody will think they are getting it. When it kicks in, they will realize it is not even worth having, and they will be outraged. That is what we faced when we came in 15 years ago, or whatever it is. The other thing that is really bothering me, I listened to our Republican colleagues earlier and they talked about how Medicare is broke and it has to be fixed. The biggest problem with Medicare now is they are borrowing from the trust fund. If anything, they are going to make it go broke, because they keep borrowing it to pay for other costs. When my colleague from Washington mentioned the voucher, all I kept thinking was how this becomes budget driven. In other words, say you give them $4,500 now. But next year, when they say we do not have the money for that, we cannot afford $4,500, so maybe you will continue to get the $4,500, but inflation will not keep up with it.”