[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12024-12025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
       PLEASE DON'T TOUCH MEDICARE, MEDICAID, OR SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Ms. PINGREE of Maine asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. PINGREE of Maine. Mr. Speaker, in the past few weeks, the phones 
in my office have been ringing off the hook. The message from my 
constituents is clear: Please don't touch Medicare, Medicaid, or Social 
Security. Some are angry, and some are tearful. All are sick with worry 
over the threat of losing benefits they have earned and depend on. 
Sadly, these effective programs have become targets for those who would 
balance the Federal budget on the backs of seniors and the middle class 
rather than restoring tax rates for millionaires. It's unthinkable, and 
it's unfair. I plan to do everything I can to protect these critical 
programs because they work.
  When Medicare started 45 years ago, a third of our seniors lived in 
poverty; half had no health care coverage. Today the poverty rate for 
seniors has been slashed, and nearly all of our seniors have access to 
quality care. And

[[Page 12025]]

thanks to the Affordable Care Act, seniors won't have to worry about 
paying for preventative care or falling into the prescription drug 
doughnut hole. After working hard their entire lives, seniors should be 
able to feel confident that the system they faithfully paid into will 
be there for them when they need it most.

                          ____________________