Martin Hoke: “This is what I am sort of driving at. You know, it seems to me that the responsible thing to do here is look at the…”

“This is what I am sort of driving at. You know, it seems to me that the responsible thing to do here is look at the problem, and then posit solutions for the problem itself, ask the American people what they think, seek their advice, seek their input, which is what we have obviously been doing for some time now, have hearings on it. We have had over 10 hearings, thousands and thousands of pages of testimony. This is certainly not a problem that just started this year. Obviously we have been concerned about Medicare for some time. The President has made it very clear as well, and comes up with, in terms of numbers, with proposals with respect to the actual percentage of increase, reducing the amount of the increase in Medicare that is quite similar to the numbers that we have come up with, and yet in this House, we have not heard any positive alternative plans, or even the admission that maybe there is a problem here that we ought to address. How do you read that? Why? What is going on? Why has this become such a partisan issue?”