Our ability now to produce manufactured goods and that sort of thing is--we are in real competition around the world.

there are real impacts to middle class folks, to seniors due to the sequester.

Is that high enough?

I would like for the committee, that you would submit to us, all of you, if you have it, evidence that backs up the theory that people go to the doctor more often than they need to.

I don't think there is general agreement across this dais, I am sure, on the need for catastrophic limit.

Republicans often assert that Medicare is outdated and needs reform, and I agree.

So I think it is generally accepted by everyone that whatever manipulation you do, you have to take care of the people at the bottom.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to say I have appreciated your slow gavel so that we could allow the witnesses to finish what they have to say.

I look forward to this process.

If you shift the cost to beneficiaries, how does that get paid for?

My point is, Mr. Chairman, patients don't shop, they follow what doctors tell them to do.