[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5102]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         DEFENDING OUR SENIORS

  (Mr. SIRES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. SIRES. Mr. Speaker, the majority's proposed budget for fiscal 
year 2012 undermines our Nation's values and priorities, attacking our 
middle class and in particular our Nation's seniors. Today's seniors 
have a median income of only $19,000 a year. Both the Medicare and 
Medicaid program enables seniors to have health care coverage they 
would not otherwise be able to afford. The proposed budget will end the 
Medicare program as we know it under the disguise of reform, 
threatening to turn it into a voucher program that will shift more and 
more costs to seniors and their families.
  The majority's budget also attacks seniors from another angle, by 
proposing deep cuts in Medicaid, which serves as our Nation's primary 
payer for long-term care services. Medicaid will be starved by shifting 
the costs of the programs from the Federal Government to the States, 
which in turn could force seniors out of their own homes and 
communities into nursing homes.
  Before Medicaid and Medicare, nearly one-half of America's seniors 
were uninsured. Mr. Speaker, we cannot go back to the days of the past. 
We must be committed to strengthening Medicare and Medicaid for the 
well-being of our seniors and future generations.

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