[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 29, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4165-S4166]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, often very good ideas, no matter how 
important, take time to ripen. Even when they are ripe they need 
dedicated advocates to make them a reality. Let me give one example.
  President Harry Truman once said:

       Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of 
     opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not 
     now have protection or security against the economic effects 
     of sickness. And the time has now arrived for action to help 
     them attain that opportunity and help them get that 
     protection.

  But in 1945 when he spoke those words to Congress, the time had not 
yet truly arrived. In fact, it would be another 20 years before 
Truman's good idea was realized. It would be 20 years before Truman 
became the first of 19 million Americans to receive a Medicare card.
  President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law in the 
Truman Presidential Library in Independence, MO. The law took effect 
almost a year later, 45 years ago this week, on July 1, 1966.
  At the time Medicare took effect, only half of Americans 65 and older 
had access to health care coverage. A third of American seniors lived 
in poverty. ``Poverty was so common that we did not know it had a 
name,'' President Johnson said, describing a time before Medicare.
  Today, virtually every American over 65 has access to health care and 
the number of seniors who live below the poverty line has dropped by 75 
percent. That is no accident. Medicare provides 47 million Americans 
with the

[[Page S4166]]

access to care and protection from poverty that President Truman 
envisioned 65 years ago, and Medicare and Medicaid do not only protect 
seniors from poverty, they also protect those seniors' children. Forty-
six years ago, middle-class families often spent themselves into the 
poorhouse honoring their commitment to their moms and dads. Today's 
seniors and their children have the security that Medicare and Medicaid 
will be there to honor that commitment--to providing health care and 
nursing home care when they need it.
  But Medicare doesn't only save American seniors money, it saves their 
lives. In 1964, just before Medicare was signed into law, seniors lived 
an average of not quite 70 years. Today the national average is more 
than 78 years. There is, perhaps, no achievement greater than that. 
This law literally extended Americans' life expectancy. Forty-six years 
ago, before signing Medicare into law, President Johnson made this vow:

       No longer will this Nation refuse the hand of justice to 
     those who have given a lifetime of service and wisdom and 
     labor to the progress of this progressive country.

  Democrats intend to honor that solemn vow of President Johnson. But 
today Medicare is under siege. Republicans would trade away the health 
and safety of today's seniors for the sake of tax breaks for 
billionaires, wealthy oil companies, and corporations that ship jobs 
overseas. They would trade that sense of security, that ``hand of 
justice'' Johnson described, for the sake of tax breaks on their 
corporate jets and their yachts. Their ideological budget would end 
Medicare as we know it, once again subjecting seniors to the rising 
costs of health care. Democrats refuse to let that happen.
  A lot has changed since 1966 and that law. New technologies and 
medicines are there for diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. We now have 
hip replacements and chemotherapy, all pioneered in the late 1960s, and 
they are now performed in the United States every single day. Medicine 
has changed for the better.
  But one thing has not changed. Seniors need Medicare. In fact, the 
rising cost of health care today means seniors need Medicare's 
protection more now than ever. That is why we will never stop fighting 
to preserve this successful program. As long as I am in the Senate, I 
will oppose Republican plans to weaken or undermine it, because the 
Republicans' plan to weaken Medicare is an idea whose time will never 
come.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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