the gentleman is so right , and i appreciate the opportunity to weigh in on this issue . 
this issue of scoring , as the gentleman is talking about , it reminds me of course of the debate during the medicare modernization and prescription drug act that we passed in december of 2003 . 
of course , that part d will go into effect and the modernization piece is already in effect for medicare , but part d , the prescription drug part , will start january 1. but all we heard and continue to hear , particularly from the other side and for those nay-sayers who keep wanting to talk negative about really a very good program that is going to be a godsend for our neediest seniors , i talked about this on the floor , my colleagues i know heard me last night . 
but the talk , the emphasis is on the cost of part d , and the cost estimate is based on the number of seniors that participate ultimately . 
i do not think anybody really knows , mr. speaker , what that number will be ; but at one point it looked like the cbo said , well , it is going to be $ 400 billion additional medicare cost over a 5-year period of time . 
then those numbers were revised , and then we were hearing as much maybe as $ 750 billion . 
that is the scoring that the gentleman from pennsylvania is talking about , and my colleagues understand what he means . 
you get no credit for the fact that many people who sign up and , yes , there will be an additional medicare cost for them on this part d program , but the fact that they are able to take those medications , they can finally afford to take that statin to lower their cholesterol and that medication , that insulin to lower their blood sugar or whatever antihypertensive to lower their blood pressure , guess what , the truth of the matter is , and what the gentleman was emphasizing , is that you get no credit for saving those costs , not to mention the fact that it is so much more compassionate to spend money on prevention rather than treatment , particularly when the treatment sometimes is not very successful and a person could ultimately be in a nursing home for years and disabled for the rest of their lives . 
i will take it a step further before turning it back over to my colleague . 
it is the same thing , this scoring issue , in regard to the tax cuts that this republican leadership has effected over these past 3 years . 
the scorers , the cbo , the number crunchers say , well , these tax cuts , the elimination of the marriage tax penalty , increasing the child tax credit from $ 600 an infant to $ 1 , 000 a child , giving small business men and women an opportunity to more rapidly depreciate investment in bricks and mortar and creating new jobs , all of these things , elimination of the death tax , no taxation without respiration i firmly believe in , the scorers said that was going to cost us $ 1.3 trillion . 
my colleague remembers that . 
and a lot of people said , oh , we can not afford that . 
what are we doing cutting taxes ? 
well , after about a year and a half , when we looked at our revenue stream , what was the result ? 
we had about 225 billion more dollars , which on the scoring side we get no credit for . 
so the gentleman is so right . 
so many of these things that we are talking about tonight in this hour , these innovations , these community health centers that the president has funded , recommended , and feels so strongly about , on the scoring side you get no credit for ; but we do save money , as the gentleman points out . 
and just think , also , it is the compassionate , conservative thing to do for the american people . 
