Kent Conrad Medicare Quotations

I believe they have an affirmative obligation to come up with spending cuts or new revenue to prevent us from raiding the Medicare and Social Security trust funds,

His tax cut is so big that he leaves no money to pay for a new prescription drug benefit without using the Medicare trust fund,

My own view is that we ought to protect the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, then, with what is left, have significant tax cuts.

This nation is about to be hit with a tidal wave of new retirees. In just six years, the baby boomers will begin to retire. The demands on Social Security and Medicare will be dramatically increased, ... This is no time to divert Social Security and Medicare funds to other purposes.

The Congressional Budget Office tells us by 2052, Social Security could meet only 78 percent of its obligations. Medicare is in even worse shape. The shortfall in Medicare is eight times the deficit in Social Security. But the president has no plan to deal with that. The truth is, we need to confront all these challenges sooner rather than later.