Quotes of Note

By Anonymous

“Why do we want to put our vulnerable members in a position to have a 30-second ad running a year from now saying you gave your fat- cat friends a tax cut and cut Medicare for your grandmother?”

-Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), on the problem faced by Republicans who see in the nation’s trillion-dollar budget deficits an opportunity to cut the nation’s entitlement programs, but face the wrath of the voter in nextyear’s congressional elections

“We certainly think there is room to reduce Medicare.”

-Demetrios Karoutsos, health aide to Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), speaking on the potential for Medicare program cuts to help reduce projected federal budget deficits

“Taking $10 billion from Medicaid would be a wrong-headed approach. … There are a lot of other things that we are open to exploring. That could very well be savings from Medicare as well.”

-Antonia Ferrier, health aide to Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), on reducing President Bush’s proposed cuts to Medicaid, paying for it by cutting Medicare

“These [spending] cuts are deeply misguided and are only needed to make a partial down payment on the deep tax cuts coming.”

-Tom Kahnt Democratic staff director of the House Budget Committee, on GOP proposals to make large cuts in the nation’s social benefit spending

Copyright Healthcare Financial Management Association Oct 2005