[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10401]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   DISMANTLING MEDICARE AS WE KNOW IT

  (Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in response to 
our friend from Texas who spoke just a few minutes ago, talking about 
Medicaid. It is true that entitlement programs need to be reformed. 
It's also true that costs need to be reined in. That's what affordable 
health care reform actually did.
  The answer certainly does not lie in the Republican budget passed 
earlier this year on a party-line vote, which would dismantle Medicare 
as we know it, turning it into a voucher system, the Ryan plan, and 
would turn Medicaid into a block grant program which would further 
impoverish our States at a delicate moment of their recovery.
  We need reform in entitlement programs, but the Republican budget, 
Mr. Speaker, is not the answer. It is the death knell for a program 
that covers a third of all Americans' health care.

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