Frank Pallone: “the previous speaker, my colleague from Ohio, is once again trying to use the Medicare trustees report which comes out…”

“the previous speaker, my colleague from Ohio, is once again trying to use the Medicare trustees report which comes out today as justification for the large cuts in Medicare that will be used by the Republican leadership to finance tax breaks for the wealthy. This trustees report is out again, it comes out every year, and what it says to us is that we need to do something, we need to make some changes in the Medicare Program, but the Democrats have already proposed that. We have already voted on the President's budget, which most Republicans oppose, which would basically make some cuts in Medicare but preserve the program. The problem is that the Republican proposal is to change radically Medicare, to make it so you do not have a choice of doctor, to increase out-of-pocket costs with overcharges and also essentially forcing senior citizens into managed care, into HMO's. We do not need the radical changes in Medicare that the Republicans are proposing. We only need to make some minor adjustments to make sure that the trust fund remains solvent. But that can be done with the Democratic proposal without the radical changes in Medicare that the Republican leadership is proposing. ____________________”