according to rick foster, who is the person from the administration, who keeps track of all medicare and medicaid spending, the bill increases health care costs $234 billion more than if we did nothing. that's a huge cost. in addition to increasing total cost, the reid bill will increase our national debt and threaten the health care provided to millions of medicare beneficiaries. some of my democratic colleagues are going to come down to the floor and argue the reid bill will reduce the deficit and extend the solvency of the medicare program. they have been doing that for days. they will cite the congressional budget office to support their arguments. i hope that every american hears those arguments and remembers a few inconvenient truths that my democratic colleagues are going to forget to mention. the way my colleagues on the other side of the aisle were able to force c.b.o. to conclude that the reid bill will not increase the deficit was by requiring them to use budget gimmicks and assumptions that would make bernie madoff blush. every time you hear one of my colleagues argue tha

he addressed the letter we signed on to to the chief actuary who is rick foster of the center for medicare and medicaid services. which is part of h h s and we ask for an evaluation of this bill. that is somebody from the administration doing the evaluation. that person said that this bill -- this doesn't include whatever they are doing on some kind of option because they are not letting anybody see that even people from their own party. this actuary based on the bill we have been working on, says it will increase by 7 tenths of 1% more than if we did nothing. more than if we did nothing. that is the admission of -- administration saying it. the report describes how fees for drugs, devices and insurance plans will increase health insurance premiums, increasing national health expenditures by $11 billion per year. on medicare which is his real area of expertise he talks about what the $464 billion in medicare cuts in the bill will do and says that it isn't sustainable, that it will cost benefits, that it is cuts that we will not be able to use, we will not be able to do even in part a. it s

chief actuary rick foster. i yield the floor. mr. demint: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. demint: i want to thank enzi for not just what he is saying today but throughout this whole debate for making very complex issues many simpler, so people can listen in to what is being said here and understand really what we're doing. it has been a frustrating process here dealing with this attempted government takeover of health care while the majority has us here on the floor debating us bill, they're behind a closed door over here creating a whole new bill and making periodic announcements about what might be in it. it's kind of like a magician, you know, who gets you looking at one hand while the sleight of hand is actually doing the magic with the other hand. and that's what we see happening here today. the majority wants to force this major piece of legislation through before christmas while people aren't paying attention, and in the middle of this, they have decided to take a break to expand spending at really unpreced

grassley: there was a report released recently by the chief actuary, rick foster. i hope that this report will once and for all put to an end any serious consideration of the class act. now the class act is going to be in the bill if this bill passes congress. but it shouldn't be in it and we should have had a long discussion on -- on -- on this provision because it's simply unsustainable. fiscally unsustainable. the information that the chief actuary's letter provides is amble -- ample evidence of why the class part of this bill can't work. and quoting from page 13 of the chief actuary's letter, "we estimate that an initial average premium level of about $240 per month would be required to adequately fund class program costs for this level of enrollment, anti-selection, and premium inadequacy for students and low-income participants." so who would enroll in the class program? an american making 300% of poverty has a gross income o of $32,000-plus dollars. if the class premium is, as the chief actuary predicts, $240 per month, that's $2,180 per year, and an individ