[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7705]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1250
                                MEDICARE

  (Mr. BACA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BACA. Mr. Speaker, these are tough times for the American people 
everywhere. In my home State of California, families face a 12 percent 
unemployment rate, and the gas prices are well over $4 a gallon.
  But instead of working together to solve the problems, the Republican 
leadership has voted to end Medicare as we know it and extend the tax 
breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas.
  This week the Senate will have its chance to vote on a reckless 
Republican budget. The consequences of this misguided plan are 
devastating for the senior citizens--again I state--devastating to the 
senior citizens and the middle class.
  In California alone, the Republican budget would cost seniors--I 
state--cost seniors over $214 million in higher prescription drug costs 
next year; cut almost $54 billion in Medicaid funding for seniors and 
the disabled; and would cost us 186,000 private sector jobs that will 
be lost over the next 5 years.
  We must scrap this plan. Let us work together on a reasonable budget 
to protect Medicare.

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