Medicare

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, last month, the Medicare trustees warned that Medicare will go bankrupt in 13 years, which is 5 years earlier than they had previously calculated. You heard me right. One of the most important programs that the government actually runs--the Medicare Program--designed to provide health care to seniors, is going to run out of money in 13 years, 5 years earlier than projected just last year.

The Medicare trustees noted that Medicare's unfunded liabilities--that is the number it is responsible for--are more than $24 trillion, but that is also growing. Stated another way, this is a $24 trillion gap between Medicare's future benefit costs and the future taxes of premiums that are expected to be collected to pay for it.

Today, I am, along with nearly all my Republican colleagues, sending a letter to the President of the United States, insisting he comply with the law. What law would that be? Well, the law that was passed in 2003 that, under these circumstances, requires the President to propose a plan to deal with this funding crisis for Medicare. President Obama has said he is willing to make some tough decisions. Yet he refuses to provide concrete, constructive, and meaningful proposals to deal with this impending insolvency of one of our most important government programs.

The Medicare trustees have issued a Medicare funding warning in their annual report every year since 2006. They are required to do so under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. In response to this warning, as I said, the President is required by Federal law to submit to Congress proposed legislation that would address this funding crisis. President Bush, in 2008, in response to the 2007 Medicare trustees' warning, did exactly what the law requires. He submitted legislation to address this funding crisis. Both the House and the Senate, in compliance with the law, introduced legislation, but, unfortunately, it never went anywhere--kicking the can down the road once again.

The Medicare trustees have, in fact, issued a funding warning every year since 2006, as I mentioned, including all 3 years President Obama has been in office. However, for 3 years now, President Obama and his administration have failed to comply with the mandatory requirement of the law. Congress has never received a proposal from President Obama's administration to address this funding crisis. This failure I wish I could tell you was the result of an oversight but apparently not.

On Tuesday, in an e-mail to The Hill newspaper, on behalf of the administration, they said they believed this law was ``advisory and not binding.''

The law itself states--passed by both Houses of Congress, signed into law--that the President ``shall'' submit legislation to Congress, not that he ``might,'' or ``if it is convenient,'' or ``if he finds time,'' or ``if it advances his political posture leading up to the next election.'' It says he ``shall'' submit legislation.

Thank goodness we live in a country where no one is above the law. We are a nation of laws, where the law applies to the President of the United States and it applies to the most humble members of our society.

Medicare is going bankrupt. Unfortunately, the voices of reform--people are stepping forward to try to solve this problem and make meaningful suggestions so we can actually do what we are supposed to do in Congress, which is debate ideas and come up with solutions, where we can have a vote and we can send legislation to the President and he can sign it or not. That is the way the process is designed to work, but so far the voices missing from the reform debate are those of our friends on the other side of the aisle.

There is no House Democratic plan to save Medicare. There is no Senate Democratic plan to save Medicare. There is no plan for President Obama to save Medicare. Unfortunately, their plan appears to be not to step up and do what the law requires, to offer a proposal to save Medicare but, rather, to try to take a cynical political advantage leading up to the next election by attacking the very people who are making constructive proposals.

No one suggests that any single proposal is perfect. The Ryan plan is not perfect. The Domenici-Rivlin plan offers a different approach. The President's own fiscal commission's report is entitled ``Moment of Truth.'' They reported back in December 2010. It was a bipartisan commission appointed by the President himself. It makes constructive suggestions on how to solve our spending crisis and to address the unsustainability of our entitlement program. But it appears that rather than embrace any of these constructive ideas, rather than do his duty, as the law requires, the President seems content to scare seniors into opposing responsible reforms, while watching the program go bankrupt over the next few years.

By refusing to propose needed reforms to this important program, President Obama is not only abdicating his responsibility to lead as a President of the United States, he is violating Federal law.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the letter I referred to earlier be printed in the Record.

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