[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 148 (Wednesday, October 5, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6187-S6188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CORKER (for himself and Mr. Bennet):
  S. 1655. A bill to amend title XI of the Social Security Act to 
provide for the annual mailing of statements of Medicare beneficiary 
part A contributions and benefits in coordination with the annual 
mailing of Social Security account statements; to the Committee on 
finance.
  Mr. CORKER. I am here today to say that Senator Bennet from Colorado 
and myself are introducing a bill that mirrors what has been introduced 
in the House by Representative Cooper from Tennessee and Paul Ryan from 
Wisconsin.
  I have tremendous faith in the American people. I believe when the 
American people are given facts and transparency, they make good 
decisions. They help us here in Washington make good decisions when I 
think they have the information they need.
  A lot of Americans are very aware of some of the dilemmas we face 
here in Washington regarding Medicare. But I do not think many 
Americans are fully aware of the dilemma we face. I think they are 
aware that the trustees for Medicare have said that in the year 2024 
Medicare is going to become insolvent. But I do not think they are 
aware of the math. Actually I was not aware of the math until we began 
to look at how we solve the problem.
  According to a recent study, the average American couple each earning 
$43,500 a year will pay $119,000 into the Medicare Program over their 
lifetime. This contribution includes the portion that their employer 
pays on their behalf. In other words, the family pays in half, the 
employer pays in half. In 2011 dollars, that means if you paid in 30 
years ago, and that money was inflated to today's dollars, that family 
would have paid in $119,000 over their lifetime.
  What most Americans do not know is that over their lifetime, the 
average family takes $357,000 out of Medicare. So obviously the math 
does not work. I think most Americans did not fully realize this until 
we got into the situation we're in--I am not sure most people in the 
Senate understood how off the math is, if you will.
  Over the next decade, 20 million more Americans are going to be on 
Medicare. The situation where the average family and their employer are 
paying in $119,000 into the program and taking out $357,000 is going to 
be further exacerbated by the fact that over the next 10 years, 20 
million more Americans are going to be on Medicare.
  Then, on top of that, we are going to have fewer people working per 
retiree than ever in the history of this country. For that reason, 
today, Senator Bennet and I are offering a bill that says when 
Americans receive their Social Security letter, which lays out how much 
they have paid in, they would also receive the information regarding 
Medicare, so that they will know how much they are paying into the 
program and, over time, how much they will have taken out.
  I think this type of transparency allows Americans to fully 
understand how these programs work. To me, what that will do is help 
all of us in the Senate, and over in the House of Representatives, make 
better decisions. I think when Americans are informed they help us make 
better decisions.
  A lot of Americans don't fully appreciate this, I think, sometimes. 
But Congress really does reflect more fully than they think the will of 
the American people. Again, I think transparency helps us represent the 
American people in even a more full way.
  Today we introduce this bill, and I thank Senator Bennet from 
Colorado for joining me in this effort. I also thank Representatives 
Cooper and Ryan for their leadership in the House.
  It is my hope that soon, either through unanimous consent or early 
action, that this bill will become law. I think as long as Americans 
understand where things stand, they help us in Congress make good and 
sound decisions. That is why I am introducing this bill today with the 
help of Senator Bennet from Colorado.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I congratulate the junior Senator from 
Tennessee for his usual good judgment and insight in working on a 
difficult problem. No Member of this body has done more in the last 
year to try to highlight the problem of the Federal debt. Through his 
cap plan, which has been a part of almost every discussion we have had 
seriously about it, through his effort--more recently to support 
efforts to try to achieve $4 trillion in debt reduction as a part of 
the select committee, and his suggestion today that allowing Americans 
to understand something that most of us hadn't focused on--that during 
our lifetimes we are paying in $110,000, $120,000 into Medicare and 
taking out, during our lifetimes, $350,000 or so, and that is a problem 
that has to be solved.
  I have been doing research lately on our debt situation. 
Fundamentally speaking, our problem lies with health care costs. It 
lies with families, businesses, and with the U.S. Government. Our 
discretionary spending--the kind we appropriate every year--on 
everything from national parks and national defense to roads and 
bridges, that is about 39 percent of the budget. If we stick to our 
guns on the agreement we made in early August, that will only grow at a 
little less than the rate of inflation. But it would go over to the 
mandatory spending, which is about 55 percent of our spending. It is 
going to go up three times the rate of inflation, and the fastest 
growing part of that mandatory spending is Medicare and Medicaid.
  So we need to save our Medicare and Medicaid system so Americans can 
rely on them. I think Senator Corker shows respect for the voters of 
Tennessee and for Americans by assuming that if they understand the 
problem, they will support a serious effort to deal with a solution. I 
compliment him for that leadership.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The junior Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, while we are issuing compliments, I want 
to say that all of us want to see to it that Medicare is here for 
future generations. That will take sound judgment. We have a select 
committee that is working on, hopefully, the first step to make that 
happen.
  I congratulate the senior Senator from Tennessee for this. More than 
anybody else recently, I think he has

[[Page S6188]]

pointed out that in this country, as we leave mandatory spending on 
autopilot, and as we move to a place where these programs are insolvent 
and not there for future generations, what we are doing is eating our 
seed corn.
  The fact is, our senior Senator from Tennessee knows full well what 
it takes to make a strong country. He sits on an appropriations 
committee and understands that many of the basic sciences and other 
types of efforts that are underway with the Federal Government are the 
very things that will make our country stronger.
  Yet what we are doing in this country by leaving mandatory spending 
on autopilot at the rate at which it is growing is causing us to eat 
into those things that make our country strong. I thank him for his 
leadership in that regard. As the Governor of Tennessee, he led our 
State in making it stronger by making the kinds of priority investments 
that made us stronger. He alluded to that earlier--what he did in 
making sure investments in our State created higher wages.
  I think more than anybody else in this body, the Senator understands 
if we allow things to continue as they are, we are going to continue to 
invest less and less in those kinds of things that make our country 
strong--things such as infrastructure, which we all know needs to 
happen. Yet because we haven't had the courage and the will to take on 
those mandatory programs, reform them so that future generations will 
have them, but also so that we can continue to make these investments 
in our country that are so important, our country's greatness will 
dissipate.
  I thank him for his leadership in many ways. I hope he will continue 
to move ahead with informing people as to what is happening in this 
country, how that is hurting us, how it causes our greatness to 
dissipate as long as we don't take on these mandatory spending programs 
which, in my words, are causing us to eat our seed corn.
                                 ______