John Spratt: “Mr. Speaker, this bill walls off the surplus in the Medicare Part A trust fund. It says in effect that the surplus in…”

“Mr. Speaker, this bill walls off the surplus in the Medicare Part A trust fund. It says in effect that the surplus in the President's budget and in the congressional budget resolution should be at least as large every year as the Medicare Part A surplus. In addition, of course, tax cuts and spending increases could not reach that target. The idea of taking the Part A trust fund off the table, not off the budget, is a small step forward, because it means that a slightly higher share of the projected surpluses over the next 10 years are going to be devoted to paying down publicly-held debt. That is good for social security, that is good for Medicare, that is good for the economy. That is why I voted yes. But this is just a small step, a token step, since preserving the Medicare surplus does not really extend Medicare solvency for one day. Our long-term fiscal situation implies that over the course of the next 10 years, while we are generating these on-budget surpluses, we should be devoting a significant share of them to Medicare solvency, to debt reduction, and to social security solvency for the long run.”