Political Quotes

“the Medicare and Medicaid cuts of $300 billion, that is outrageous, that at a time when the number of Medicare beneficiaries is growing every year, the baby boomers are starting to qualify for Medicare in fiscal year 2008, which is where this budget takes us, and they are going to start retiring en masse in 2011 which is during the 5-year budget, that they would reduce spending for Medicare beneficiaries at a time when the number of beneficiaries is going up exponentially. Now, these Medicare cuts include premium increases for millions of beneficiaries totaling $10 billion over the next 10 years. Let me repeat that. Medicare beneficiaries at home, many of them, are going to see their premiums increase to the point where it is going to add up to $10 billion in premium increases over the next 10 years. But, at the same time that this budget slashes Medicare funding, of course it protects special interests, it leaves untouched massive overpayments by Medicare to the HMOs in the Republican's Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Now, many of the Federal Medicaid cuts simply increase cost to the State. These aren't costs that are going away, they are just passing the buck along to the States. So instead of assisting State efforts to reduce the number of uninsured, this budget actually impedes progress on States being able to insure children and others.”