Lloyd Doggett: “The problem was, as the gentleman will remember, that more than anything else, he did not like the fact that the…”

“The problem was, as the gentleman will remember, that more than anything else, he did not like the fact that the President of the United States absolutely refused to join him in his determination to let Medicare wither on the vine. And when the President said, ``No, I do not want Medicare to wither on the vine,'' as the Speaker had committed, as Senator Dole, who said he was so proud to have voted against Medicare when it was created in 1965, then they started talking about entitlements, and what they really meant was they were entitled to a crown jewel of tax breaks for those at the top of the economic ladder. They had to savage Medicare in order to do it. And if they could not get that, they really kind of lost their interest in a balanced budget.”