Thomas Daschle: “But he and I have a very fundamental difference of opinion with regard to Medicare, and I wish to respond briefly to…”

“But he and I have a very fundamental difference of opinion with regard to Medicare, and I wish to respond briefly to comments that he made today on that issue. He said in his remarks the Medicare trustees' report predicting insolvency only became available in April 1995; that it was not available 2 years ago when the President's deficit reduction package was debated. The fact is that the Medicare trustees' report is available every year for all Members of Congress to see, and every year the report has been predicting insolvency of the Medicare trust fund, sometime between 1999 and the year 2003. So there should be no surprise with regard to the predictions of this year's trustees' report. I think the question is, how we will generate Medicare savings over the course of the next year, and how will we use those savings.”