Frank Pallone: “this weekend on NBC's ``Meet the Press,'' House Speaker Newt Gingrich went on the attack on Medicare once again, and now…”

“this weekend on NBC's ``Meet the Press,'' House Speaker Newt Gingrich went on the attack on Medicare once again, and now he claims that the President and the Democrats in Congress are deliberately misleading the American people about his plan; that is, the Republican plan, so-called plan to save Medicare. I would like to tell my colleagues that nothing could be further from the truth. Last year the American people overwhelmingly rejected the Republican plan to cut $270 billion from Medicare to pay for tax breaks primarily for the wealthy, and the Speaker knows the public opinion is not on his side, so he is trying to confuse the American people by making extreme attacks on Democrats' integrity rather than addressing the Medicare issue correctly. I guess we should not be surprised because it was Speaker Gingrich who last year said it was his goal to see Medicare, and I quote, ``wither on the vine.'' The bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is that the Republicans want to use the budget, this budget that they passed a few weeks ago and is now in conference with the Senate, as the vehicle for transforming Medicare in a very radical way.”