[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5665-5666]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THE REPUBLICAN ROAD TO RUIN BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Tonko) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, the Republican road-to-ruin budget, if 
enacted, will end Medicare. It will end the program that 46 million 
seniors and disabled individuals depend upon for their health care. 
This gross injustice is made immeasurably more egregious and offensive 
by the fact that this is being done not to balance the budget, but to 
expand and permanently guarantee even bigger tax cuts for millionaires 
and billionaires and to give new tax breaks to some of the world's most 
profitable companies.
  Rather than the path to prosperity, this budget is more like the 
road-to-riches, a road paved in gold with lavish handouts for special 
interests, paid for and built with dollars from senior citizens who 
will see their hard-earned benefits rationed more and more with every 
passing year.
  I have heard a lot of talk in the last few months about the need to 
make tough choices in this budget. Well, the average senior on Medicare 
earns just over $19,000 a year. About one-quarter of Medicare 
beneficiaries suffer from a cognitive or mental impairment, and many 
have at least one or more chronic medical conditions. I ask my 
Republican colleagues, what exactly is it about stripping these 
Americans bare of their health and economic security that qualifies as 
tough? There is nothing tough about stealing from the poor, the weak 
and the frail to give to the rich.
  Our seniors, on the other hand, know all about tough choices. Do I 
buy groceries or do I buy prescriptions? Do I pay rent or do I pay 
medical bills? It hurts, but how much will it cost? These are tough 
choices. These are life-and-death choices.
  With the passage of Medicare in 1965, we entered into a covenant with 
every American citizen. This budget breaks

[[Page 5666]]

that promise and brings us back to square one. The Republican voucher 
plan ends Medicare. Instead, seniors will be on their own, with a 
measly voucher and forced to buy insurance in the private market, where 
all decisions will be profit-driven. More profits for insurance 
companies on the backs of seniors--sounds like a Republican plan to me.
  This new voucher program amounts to a ration card, and the value of 
the voucher is not linked to increases in health care costs in the 
private market. Yet the costs of private health insurance have risen 
over 5,000 percent since the creation of Medicare--5,000 percent.
  The analysis of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has 
estimated that in less than 20 years, the vouchers under the Republican 
road-to-ruin budget would pay just 32 cents on every dollar that a 
senior spends on health care.
  Now, the Republicans have repeatedly stated that their budget gives 
seniors the same coverage as Members of Congress. Well, as a Member of 
Congress myself, I know that our health plans pay for about 72 cents on 
every dollar of our health coverage, not 32 cents on the dollar.
  According to CBO, the voucher program will provide a ration of $8,000 
to seniors every year to purchase their health care from private 
insurance companies. Yet the private insurance premium charged by Blue 
Cross in 2010 for a Member of Congress was well over $9,000. Does 
anyone honestly believe that sick senior citizens and people with 
permanent disabilities will be able to find coverage from private 
insurance for $8,000 when they are now charging over $9,000 to Members 
of Congress?
  According to The Wall Street Journal, the average cost of health care 
for seniors over 65 in 2009 was $11,743. If an insurance company were 
to take on $11,743 of risk for $8,000, they would be out of business in 
short order. But Republicans don't believe their insurance company 
buddies will actually offer coverage for $8,000 or even for $11,743 
just to break even. They know that seniors will have to go into their 
pockets for thousands of dollars as this plan hands Medicare over to 
the private insurance companies to make even more profits. In fact, CBO 
found that seniors will have to pay more than twice as much out of 
pocket as they do today.
  This budget takes trillions from seniors and rations their care, and 
where does it shift the savings? Well, if you guessed permanent tax 
cuts for millionaires and a new tax break for corporations making 
billions, you guessed right. After more than a year of hurling lies and 
demagoguery about death panels and rationing care, Republicans on the 
panel before us have demanded that we restrict seniors to a health care 
ration card and ensure that those who cannot afford coverage on their 
own will be left to suffer or die. Well, therein is the real death 
penalty they once talked about. They pay lip service to Americans' 
responsibility to share the burden and instead steal from those who 
cannot afford an expensive lobbyist and give to millionaires and 
billionaires and companies that can afford much, much more.
  I'm not speaking of playing politics. America knows that our budget 
is a statement of priorities and values, not purely dollars and cents. 
America's families set priorities with their own budget each and every 
day. And I respectfully and honestly disagree with the values and 
priorities that the Republicans have established in their road-to-ruin 
budget. Let's not end Medicare.

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