[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9299]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       DEMOCRATS HAVE WRITTEN THE WRONG PRESCRIPTION FOR MEDICARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GINGREY of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I stand here today not just as a 
Congressman, but as a physician with nearly 30 years of experience 
treating and interacting with patients. Wearing both of these hats has 
allowed me to understand our health care system at each end of the 
spectrum, and it allows me to say with absolute certitude that the 
Democrats and President Obama have written the wrong prescription for 
Medicare. With 47 million Americans relying on our Medicare system and 
millions more to enter soon, it is absolutely irresponsible not to 
inform the public accurately of the facts about its current path if 
left unchanged.
  The truth is, Mr. Speaker, when the President's health care bill was 
signed into law, it ended Medicare as we know it. According to the 
nonpartisan Medicare Actuary, Medicare will run out of money in 2024. 
That is what, 13 years from now. The Congressional Budget Office says 
it will be as soon as 2020, 9 years from now.
  House Republicans have chosen to face the facts and responsibly 
proposed a comprehensive plan for Medicare. The Republican budget saves 
Medicare by maintaining benefits as they are for those 55 years and 
older, while also strengthening it by bringing true choice and 
competition to maintain and save Medicare for our children and for our 
grandchildren.
  Mr. Speaker, the Democrats' plan for Medicare reform is included in 
the 2,400 pages of, you guessed it, ObamaCare, which is bad for 
American seniors and bad for the country. Their plan empowers a panel 
of unelected bureaucrats to ration senior health care. This panel will 
focus its cuts on the chronically ill and the disabled, these Medicare 
recipients who need care the most because they use the most health care 
services.
  Health care rationing has never, Mr. Speaker, has never been the 
American way, but it certainly appears to be the Democrats' way. As a 
doctor, I know that the last thing patients need are bureaucrats who 
are unanswerable to the public, indeed, even to the Congress, making 
health choices for them.
  The Democrats' plan also allows for a $500 billion raid on Medicare 
to fund programs in ObamaCare, a fact that they have conveniently 
ignored while they are consistently criticizing Republicans for so-
called ``cutting'' care. The plan put forth by President Obama and the 
Democrats is a plan that cuts Medicare for seniors today, and it leaves 
Medicare bankrupt for our future generations, our children and our 
grandchildren.
  Mr. Speaker, my diagnosis is that American seniors should be worried 
only if we sit back and do nothing about Medicare or accept the 
Democrats' plan to gut it from sick and disabled seniors. We cannot 
allow it to continue on its current path to insolvency, as the 
Democrats and President Obama would have it. We need to support 
Medicare reform now so that we will have Medicare tomorrow, and that 
includes eliminating this rationing board as soon as possible.

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