[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5781]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     MEDICARE ELIMINATION AND MIDDLE CLASS TAX INCREASE ACT OF 2011

  (Mr. WEINER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WEINER. Ladies and gentlemen, later this week, we are going to be 
considering the Medicare Elimination and Middle Class Tax Increase Act 
of 2011. We've heard it called the ``Ryan bill,'' but that's what it 
does.
  First, it does some things that I'm sure are very popular in America. 
It says let's eliminate the Medicare program. Let's say to senior 
citizens, You know what? We're going to give you a voucher, and you go 
out and shop for health care--and good luck finding it. That's one 
proposal.
  And then it says, let's take $750 billion of Medicaid expenses and 
shift them to the States so that the States have to raise taxes and 
localities have to raise taxes. This is some new interesting idea?
  It was said by the previous speaker that Democrats haven't come 
forward with any ideas. Yeah, we came up with the idea of Medicare to 
provide health care for seniors and Social Security to provide a safety 
net for seniors in their advancing years. These are the programs that 
we care about and are going to fight for.
  This week on the House floor, Republicans are going to say we're 
against Medicare. They want to eliminate it as it stands. Now, isn't it 
ironic? They spent all last year criticizing the health care act 
because it harmed Medicare, now suddenly they want to eliminate it. 
Hypocrisy.

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