[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12336-12337]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
                   STOP THE GOP FROM ENDING MEDICARE

  (Ms. CASTOR of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge my colleagues to 
work together to resolve our debt reduction strategy, and I rise to 
urge my GOP colleagues to abandon their efforts to end Medicare as we 
know it.
  For 45 years, Medicare has been that fundamental promise to our 
parents and our grandparents that if they work hard, if they play by 
the rules, and if they pay into Medicare, they're going to be able to 
live their retirement years in dignity, and that their children will 
have economic security because we won't be worried about the

[[Page 12337]]

economic challenges that a diagnosis or an emergency situation or 
health condition would bring.
  It's fundamentally unfair that the debt racked up over the last 
decade with two wars put on a credit card, tax breaks for special 
interests, and other special provisions, and now the GOP is looking to 
end Medicare as we know it and to undermine that fundamental promise. 
We're not going to stand for it. We can work together on a more 
reasonable solution, and I urge my colleagues to do so.

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