Pelosi: We'll ‘Squeeze’ Medicare to Pay for Health Care Bill

(CNSNews.com) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said today that Congress will pay for half of the $1 trillion health care reform bill that President Obama wants enacted by “squeezing” Medicare and Medicaid to wring out what she called “waste, fraud, abuse, redundancy, obsolescence and whatever it is.”

Pelosi was asked at her weekly press briefing if she agreed with President Obama that much of the health care reform plan can be paid for by cutting Medicare and Medicaid.

“Half the bill will be paid for by squeezing excesses out of the [Medicare and Medicaid] system, and there is $500 billion dollars to do that and we’re looking for more,” Pelosi said. “That can be achieved--waste, fraud, abuse, redundancy, obsolescence, whatever it is. Squeeze it out of the system; and that means out of the providers and the rest as well.”