[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13390]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1240
                    SUPPORTING OUR NATION'S SENIORS

  (Mr. TONKO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to strongly support our Nation's 
seniors. The government programs upon which they most depend, Medicare 
and Social Security, are being threatened by congressional Republicans.
  Recently those on the other side of the aisle have been championing 
drastic changes to both programs. They want to cut Social Security 
benefits, raise the retirement age to 70, and turn Social Security 
benefits over to the stock market. They want to convert Medicare to a 
voucher program so that seniors would get a coupon to go out of their 
own way to buy a regular, individual insurance policy.
  And what do congressional Republicans propose to do with these 
savings? Certainly, they want to pay for the war. I will not stand for 
stripping senior benefits down. I will not stand for balancing the 
budget on the backs of hardworking retirees.
  Social Security and Medicare benefits belong to our Nation's seniors, 
and congressional Democrats will not stand for whittling them down or 
stealing them away. Social Security represents a promise, and that is 
if you work hard and pay into the system, you will have financial 
security in your retirement years.
  It's been that way for 75 years. Now is not the time to change it.

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