. >> thank you, mr. baker. mr. sweeney appeared >> chairman brown, breaking member toomey, senator isakson and casey, thank you relatedness speak on this topic. i am john sweeney can responsible for investment strategies. the privilege of helping with a 23 million americans safer retirement through their workplace and personal savings retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and iras. by cucumber to help americans americans feel more confident and achieve batteries is for families and income retirements. at fidelity come or passionate about sharing expertise and insights of customers. everyday working americans ask us to defy their paycheck in order to meet multiple financial obligations including paying down the mortgage, savings for children's college, possibly caring for an aging parent. one goal is being ready for retirement. this includes young investors and run their workplace savings plan or an older couple nearing 65 and asking if they saved enough to contemplate retirement. investors need help navigating accoun

mr. baker for a summary of his opening statement. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman and ranking member pallone, interesting which members of the subcommittee. medicare rights is a national nonprofit weatherization that works to ensure access to affordable care for older adults and people with disabilities and we thank you for this opportunity to testify on the medicare advantage program. each year we council thousands of people with medicare advantage about topics ranging from and we went to appealing a deny claim. we find the medicare advantage plans are a good option to some but not all people with medicare. many of our callers are satisfied with the plan and the inquiries are easily resolve. others find navigating a medicare advantage plan challenge. these cosmic struggle to resolve billing issues, cobra coverage denials, compare plan details and other issues. in particular we observe that people find choosing among medicare advantage plans sometimes a dizzying extremes. we urge people e

mr. bakerfor five minutes for an opening statement. >> thank you, chairman and ranking member parliament and a distinguishedistinguished membee subcommittee. medicare is a national profit that works to provide access to affordable care for older adults and people with disabilities and we thank you for the opportunity to testify on the medicare advantage plan. each year we cancel the lead cocounsel people about topics ranging from enrolling in the plan to appealing the d- claim it. we find medicare advantage are good options for some but not all was medicare. the callers are satisfied with the plan and their inquiries are resolved. others buy the plan are challenging. the callers may struggle to resolve billing issues, cope with coverage denials, compare their details and other issues. in particular we observe the people choosing among the medicare advantage plans sometimes as a dizzy experience. we urge people to revisit the plan's coverage as annual changes to plan benefits, cost sharing, prov

mr. baker and ms. gold, is it fair to say that reforms made by aca were intended to align medicare advantage payments with traditional medicare payments? >> yes. >> yes. >> despite claims made by some of my colleagues, these reforms have not really to medicare advantage. the program has been strong and growing. dividends, bonuses, and all of those good things to the company us and their officers were participating. mr. baker, how many people are enrolled in medicare advantage today? i believe the number is 15 million. >> correct. it correct that medicare advantage and roman has increased 30% from 2010 to 2013? >> yes. >> it seems like they are doing pretty well. >> it does. >> is it correct that the average medicare beneficiary will have a choice between 18 plans available to them in 2014? >> yes. >> mr. baker and ms. gold, the affordable care act has not resulted in a drastic increase in the number of plans available to seniors who choose to participate in medicare advantage? or decrease the n

mr. baker? >> thank you very much, chairman brown, senator toomey for inviting me to speak here. i want to make three main points of my testimony. first off, emphasizing the comments mr. or chairman brown made at the beginning that social security is the main source of income for most retirees. secondly, it is projected to become an even more important ,ource in the decades ahead primarily as a result of the disappearance of defined benefit pension plans, inadequate replacement a 401(k), and stagnant wages. third, briefly i want to comment on proposals to change the index asian formula for social security. i would argue switching to the elderly price index is for much keeping in context with congress and argue the opposite with the chain price index as a way to cut the program. first, i want to make a couple of comments quickly that ranking member toomey said social security was cash flow negative. that is not the case. the portion of cash flow interest on bonds followed by the trust fund is un

mr. baker? >> thank you very much, chairman brown, senator toomey for inviting me to speak here. i want to make three main points of my testimony. first off, emphasizing the comments mr. or chairman brown made at the beginning that social security is the main source of income for most retirees. secondly, it is projected to become an even more important ,ource in the decades ahead primarily as a result of the disappearance of defined benefit pension plans, inadequate replacement a 401(k), and stagnant wages. third, briefly i want to comment on proposals to change the index asian formula for social security. i would argue switching to the elderly price index is for much keeping in context with congress and argue the opposite with the chain price index as a way to cut the program. first, i want to make a couple of comments quickly that ranking member toomey said social security was cash flow negative. that is not the case. the portion of cash flow interest on bonds followed by the trust fund is un

mr. baker in your testimony you discussed changes to medicare advantage under the affordable care act that included policies to make the medicare advantage more efficient and reduce overpayments to bring the plans were in line with traditional medicare and enhanced plan quality can you elaborate on some of these improvements in managed care under the affordable care act? >> making sure across the board of the plans are covering preventive services as well as the original medicare. another is the easy 5% medical loss ratios in ensurin ratio su% from every dollar. as a consumer dollar were government dollar. once again the star rating program and the out-of-pocket maximum driving has provided an important financial protection to folks within a medicare advantage plan into the store ratings have made it easier for the consumers to choose among the plans they do have many choices in the market and the problem we frequently see his folks not being able to choose among the plans that has helped. >> i

mr. baker. a couple points.for social security, we can do some stuff to enhance and it would make a big difference to a lot of people at low cost. the other point i was making, we can set up a system of portable universal accounts, voluntary contribution. the key point being people can carry the place to place. they would have very limited options, very low cost. the number of states bipartisan washington state, california state came close to passing those occasions, but they were either recession. something like that would be good basically at the supplemental retirement vehicle for middle, upper middle income people. one point doesn't get appreciated it when people talk about future generations, we see huge fluctuations in asset is that will dwarf the impact of the deficit and debt and future generations. when housing prices fell by 30% come about as bad as forever known on the house. same story with the stock market that people should appreciate. i'm happy to see the market go up. what that means if anyone in

mr. baker and biggs. how serious is this problem of siphoning dollars from pension ofds to finance, the kind wheeling and dealing that was described and specific kind of instances. effortnd of enforcement could be put in place to deal with this? this really looks to me like it is way over the line if not looting of private pension funds is pretty serious financial misconduct and should not be tolerated. we will start with mr. baker and then mr. biggs. >> i do think it is a serious problem. i do not think that explains the issue in terms of workers facing in adequate retirements. you have a number of instances where certainly people were violating the intent of the law. ite money is in a pension, is supposed to stay in the pension. she gives several accounts in which companies were able to pull money from those pensions to finance a merger or downsizing. that should not happen. that requires greater scrutiny and probably greater penalties so when you can determine that someone has violated the l

>> it is very much influencing. >> mrs. baker, a control group is two or more corporations with sack ownership connected in one of several ways. not small businesses do issue. how would the rules be applied in those cases? >> they look at ownership. a corporation, they look at investment in equities. invested in a small woman's boutique as an manage or, i do not operate on a day-to-day basis. it is part of the rules of aggregation and increasing the cost. even though mr. payne mentioned the norm, the norm is we would all like to provide health insurance. that is a small woman's boutique. there is very few others that would have to require health insurance because they are small businesses and not meeting the 50 employees. for me to provide health insurance to them makes me not competitive. just because i am an entrepreneur. >> let's see if we can sum up, higher deductibles, higher premiums, additional legal costs , tens of thousands of dollars for a small business, and you are less competitive. thank you very much. >> at this poi

i just wanted to say, i'm going to ask my question to mr. baker, but i want to say with regard to mr. holt deakins testimony with regard to a ceos, i just disagree. you know come aco traditional medicare, seniors have the choice. they can see any provider they want. they are not opting for a yearly er with an m.a. plan. that is my opinion. when i heard you say, talk about aco, i wanted to express my view, which is that they are not locked in. they can choose whoever they want in a traditional medicare plan. mr. baker, i want to ask you how medicare advantage can be improved. all of us here today agree the medicare advantage program is an alternative to traditional medicare, especially individuals with complex health care needs. in your opinion, based on your organization's work in assisting medicare beneficiaries on the way back from nations do you have brought the medicare advantage program could be improved for beneficiaries? >> of course. the promise for managed care when it was initially put forward in the mid-90s, the big push was that it wou

mr. baker, i know that the past there've been concerns about medicare advantage plans cherry picking and seeking to enroll the healthiest seniors, leaving sicker beneficiaries enrolled in traditional medicare. have you seen evidence of this practice continuing our what steps the aca take to try to stop this practice? >> once again i think a provisions in the aca that require medicare advantage plans to have similar cost-sharing or benefits that are typically used by sicker beneficiaries, by that i mean renal dialysis, nursing facility care and chemotherapy is one of the ways that those plans t have become more attractive to those sacred beneficiaries and our a way that, something the plants get used to kind of cherry-pick healthier beneficiaries over sicker beneficiaries. i think what we see anecdotally and it's born of by some of the research is that folks typically to join a medicare advantage at a relatively, the younger and healthier age. as they age and become more chronically or severely

mr. baker? >> yeah, you know, and i think it will go higher. the commercial arrerospaceaeros new 787 boeing, it's an awesome, awesome plane. they just announced $10 million repurchase program, 2.2% dividend, and the stock will go higher in 2014. >> i don't know if there's another stock out there that was as resilient as boeing, just in the face of all of the stuff that happened this year with the 787. >> it's a duopoly. so you have the airline sectors moving well, and you have them. and what else, airbus? that's it. those are the two players, so with the growth in the economy, it's natural -- >> there were so many reasons for this -- >> and defense. 40% of the business is defense. >> so you had the sequester and the 787 problems. >> that's a credit to management. the ceo is just phenomenal. he came in, he redid the company essentially and their whole supply agreements left over from the prior ceo, and it's just taken off. >> one thing on this, you have to realize the problems get more press than they're worth. these guys know how to build plane

i don't understand mr. bakern he says the way we're going create jobs is to pay people not to work. it's crazy. >> well, my point here. >> real quick. >> the point is just right now we're short of demand. we need something to create demand. it's that simple. casey seemed to miss it be. but we had a collapse of a big housing. >> we'll do another one. we got to get out. dean baker, thank you. good luck on the book, casey. appreciate it. >>> markets sold off again today. stocks were down. gold sharply down. i still say investors are preparing for tighter money. now that stanley fisher is likely to join the fed. we're going to find out what our top investors and seema mody think about it, next up on "kudlow." >>> the dow dropped 104 points. the nasdaq and s&p also in the red today. take a look at gold. posting its biggest loss since october. gold tumbled 30 bucks. it's been weak for a long time. so question, is the market throwing a taper tantrum on stronger than expected economic signs and a hawkish stanley fischer

thank you for consideration. >> mr. baker. >> thank you very much, chairman brown. i want to make three main points of my testimony. first off, emphasizing the comments mr. brown the main source of an average and monitor income. and secondly even more important source as a result of the disappearance of the benefit pension plans i want to comment recently on proposals to change the index format for social security and switching to the elderly consumer price index is very much in keeping with the original intent of congress and i would argue the opposite would be chain price index basically when you cut program. i want to quickly make a couple comments. raking member toomey said it was cash negative. in fact, that's not the case. it is the bonds held by the trust fund under the law. a business adventures income would not be considered cash flow negative if i put in positive territory. another point i want to make quickly in terms of the tax increases, it's important to realize two points. one is the extent to which the shortfall facing social security is dead distribu

mr. baker, welcome. john sweeney, executive vice president of fidelity is advisory services available and retirement security. thank you for joining us. written statements entered into the record. we appreciate you keeping a testament to the allotted five minutes. mr. romasco, please begin. [inaudible] >> more than 37 million members, thank you for holding this hearing on social security roll one of the nation's most important family protective programs. my name is rob romasco. adam everett to your her an honor to serve as the direct terror. when we think about social security, we tend to picture retired people. they are indeed a majority of those receiving benefits. that alone is a critical important function that social security is far more. it protects working men and women throughout their lives in the risk that can lead to the loss of livelihood such as death or disability. we may not think of social security for family income protection program, but that's exactly what it is. picture this, more tha

mr. winstanley. >> yes. >> ms. baker. >> yes, i do. >> the other question you talk about the 50 and there are a lot of companies and not 40 plus wanting to go to 75 and under obamacare is this arbitrary selection of 50 defining a large corporation doesn't fit with the entrepreneurial spirit. in the same, what do you think yes or no, do you think we should increase beyond 50 the number of ftes that which herger the affordable care at? i don't know if it's 100 or 150 but do you believe that 50 is too low and stifles job creation and therefore we as congress should increase it to a number higher than 50? >> the the bright line test of a certain number of people is the wrong test. you should use the circumstances test on who has day-to-day control. if you increase it to 50 the same thing that happens at 50 will be happening beyond 50 whether it's 75, 150, 200 or 500 >> as with the 30 hour rule i would agree increasing the number above 50 would eliminate the number of issues but is there would have to be a change to the statu

mr. winstanley. our final witness is donna baker. miss baker is a certified public accountant in adrian, michigan. she holds a degree from adrian university and cedar heights university. welcome. >> thank you, congress, and ranking member velasquez and members of the committee. it is an hon toor to be here to testify on this subject. i'm donna baker, a cpa. i've been a cpa for the last 25 years and i've owned my own accounting firm for 13 years. i own a practice in a rural county in michigan which is a very small area. on top of owning my own firm, i also own a small company. i have invested in a retail store, and my husband, ken, who is also here today, is a partner in a small dairy farm. as you've already heard, the business aggregation rules require companies under common control to operate as a single employer. in determining which companies should be combined is either direct or attributed ownership or affiliated service but not operational control. these rules may cause unrelated businesses held by family members or trusts to be aggregated. companies within a control group do not need to hav

mr. robinson, thank you so much for being with us today. >> thank you for having me. >> schieffer: we'll be back in one minute with former secretary of state, james baker. i'm beth... and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love. ink from chase. so you can. ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪ >> schieffer: we're back with former secretary of state, james baker, who is in texas this morning, thank you for joining us. you were part of the reagan administration back when president reagan

mrs so they got a prize reports. if god can you just knew that larry and the new babies has been the bread this is for thirteen years. first he was a baker. now a sense of threat spike. he picks it up at the bakery at around four in the today. and then for the next four hours he visits his clients all around town from restaurants to family homes to convenience stores the odds they had been selling granted by the last ten years. people already know that the scene is appealing. walking is sort of puts a hearing for us. does not feel like reading their bicycles use a taxi bikes to get around. the city of any business needs significant transformation over the last twenty years. and this concrete master the result of flooding and in contrast developing area with more than twenty thousand bikes they come from all over it the us. after that and the piano but it was true for progress that the revolution started here to read this and that black on the bike scene because the series into town every two or three minutes to see three or four bikes and at least three of them are from petal is a needle pick up a bit. yes for progress is a non profit or

secretary baker's with us now from the baker institute at houston's rice university. good morning. >> good morning, charlie. >> mrow did he surprise you? >> well, my impressions of him were that he was a man of endearing and enduring dignity, very soft spoken, but very committed to the revolution that had been the focus of his adult life. i was also surprised, quite frankly, by the kind words he had for the last apartheid president of south africa, f.w. de klerk. in that meeting i had in march of 1990, it occurred, as a matter of fact, at the independence celebration of the independence of the state of the country of namibia. mandela said, i have read f.w. de klerk's speeches, and i feel like i'm dealing with a man of integrity. i'm not sure they'd met at that time. in fact, i think they had not. but the two of them cooperated to see the peaceful transition of power in south africa and the end of apartheid in south africa. >> secretary, you've compared nelson mandela to the founders of our own country. you've compared him to washington, jefferson, adams. why? >> well, because i think he's a man of that significan

mr. winstanley, thank you for being here today. it's always great to have someone who deals with this on a daily basis. ms. baker, you as well. because you give us the real life experience of how the consequences and unintended consequences of stuff that goes on here in washington affects real people in the real world. how much time and how much money do you spend on compliance with this health care law? mr. winstanley? >> it has been a very significant distraction from our business over the last couple years. especially as we try to ascertain where it's going to go, where things are going to land. our administrative -- some of the folks that help with our administrative stuff, they've spent a lot of time, i've spent a lot of time on it. some of my -- it takes a lot of our energy. >> ms. baker? >> i've been flooded with questions and phone calls over the last year with my clients. just, you know, there's just a lot of confusion, wondering if, you know, they have to start providing the health insurance. when would it be mandated, what do they have to do. i guess i've not tracked the time specifically, but it has definitely bee