[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7877]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                MEDICARE

  (Mr. PERLMUTTER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. PERLMUTTER. Mr. Speaker, first I want to echo the words of my 
colleague from Colorado, Mike Coffman, in expressing our sympathies to 
the families of Corporal Kirton from Centennial, Colorado, who died 
this past week in combat. That is a loss to Colorado, that is a loss to 
the Nation, and we just express our sympathies.
  I want to really turn to a big issue at hand, and that is over the 
last 10 years starting with Bill Clinton, we had a surplus, revenues 
exceeded expenses. But after the Bush tax cuts, which cost a trillion 
dollars or more, two wars which cost a trillion dollars or more and 
collapse of Wall Street a couple trillion dollars, that budget surplus 
was turned upside down. But instead of focusing on the tax cuts for 
millionaires and billionaires or tax cuts for the oil companies, the 
Republicans want to take money out of Medicare to try to get the budget 
right. Well, that's just going the wrong direction.
  Under the Republican budget even $100 a barrel, we are going to 
maintain those tax cuts for oil companies? Instead we're going to stop 
programs under Medicare? That's just wrong. Medicare is a program that 
has worked for this country for a long time, and I want to see it 
remain in place.

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