NAN A. S. HAYWORTH: “And, indeed, to revise the numbers in the wake of negotiations with the Senate, indeed it has been our goal to raise…”

“And, indeed, to revise the numbers in the wake of negotiations with the Senate, indeed it has been our goal to raise Medicare spending per beneficiary beyond $4,700 this year to upwards of $7,300 in the revised plan, working in concert with the new majority in the Senate. So we have even added more. But what we have tried to do is restrain the rate of growth in the program to more than twice the current inflation rate, which we think is being prudent because it adds again as much as the current rate of inflation even while offering free market solutions. And, again, as the gentleman from California points out, we are constantly met by what seems to be the sloganeering and a perverse catechism, if you will, or a chant and mantra that these are cuts, these are cuts; they are coming for seniors. And, again, nothing could be further from the truth.”