[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6044]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           FUTURE OF MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Kissell) for 4 minutes.
  Mr. KISSELL. Madam Speaker, from the time that I first came to 
Congress, I have continued to be a strong supporter of our seniors' 
issues and standing by our seniors. Today, I rise in support of another 
issue that our seniors are facing today, the issue of the future of 
Medicare.
  We must stand by those who have stood by us as they enter into their 
senior years, and we must be strong in making sure that Medicare stays 
as a solid medical safety net for our seniors.
  Madam Speaker, we have heard a lot about the Greatest Generation, 
that generation that fought World War II and worked in industries and 
raised families and came back and did so much to make America the great 
Nation as we know today. But, Madam Speaker, America is a great Nation, 
has been for many years, and will be for many years to come. And there 
is not just one Greatest Generation; there is a continuum of great 
generations.
  I grew up in a very small town in North Carolina, and my heroes were 
those people--many of whom had fought in World War II--those teachers 
and those storekeepers and those people in a small town that raised 
many of my friends and myself and looked after us, whether in the 
school or church or wherever it might be. As these people that took 
care of us become seniors and they continue this throughout the Nation 
for generations to come, we must take care of those that took care of 
us.
  I was a high school history teacher for 7 years before coming to 
Congress, and I always told my students that you're not studying 
history by looking at pages in a book or looking at old pictures or 
paintings or whatever it might be; you are studying about people that 
have a story. As we talk today about our seniors and Medicare, we 
cannot forget that these are the people who took care of us. They 
cannot become just political bargaining chips and political theories. 
They are real people. They have real stories.
  I want to talk briefly about two people that are especially important 
to me--my mom and dad. My dad grew up in that same small town that I 
did in North Carolina, fought in World War II, won a Bronze Star, came 
back, worked in the post office, and was happy just to be a part of 
helping in those ways that I talked about before. My mom grew up in 
Carroll County in Huntingdon, Tennessee, and came to North Carolina as 
a teacher and taught many generations. She is 96 years old, her 
birthday being last March 18. These are the heroes. These are the 
stories that we know, that all of us have. Whether our parents or 
grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, whatever they may 
be, we cannot forget about them as individuals; we cannot forget about 
their stories, and we cannot let them become just political bargaining 
chips.
  The question that we must ask, Madam Speaker, is: Why did we need 
Medicare in the first place? What in our system didn't work, that 
didn't take care of our seniors, that required Medicare to come into 
being? We know the answer to that. And we must continue to have that 
guarantee of a strong support structure when our medical needs for our 
seniors must be met this way. We must stand by our seniors.

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