Statement on the 45th Anniversary of the Implementation of Medicare

Statement

"Forty-five years ago today, America's senior citizens began to have their health care costs covered by Medicare. For the first time, grandmothers and grandfathers, often living on fixed, limited incomes, could receive the medical care they needed without fear of financial ruin.

For more than four decades, Medicare has kept millions of our senior citizens from living out their days in poverty. On this anniversary that they should be celebrating, Republicans in Congress are working to privatize Medicare, cut benefits, and force seniors to buy insurance on their own.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, under the Republican plan, most elderly people will pay more for medical care and get less than they do under Medicare.

Not one dollar of that increase in beneficiary costs goes to reducing the deficit -- it all goes to cover the higher costs of private plans that the Republicans would force seniors to join.

The issue before us is not whether to reduce the deficit, but how. Our Wisconsin tradition is to bring people together and share responsibility. Cutting seniors' access to health care in order to give tax breaks to billionaires and Big Oil isn't shared responsibility. It's just plain selfish; and it's not smart. Senior citizens didn't get us into this fiscal mess, and we mustn't drive seniors into poverty to get us out.

As your representative in Congress, I will oppose any effort to break the Medicare contract this country has made with our seniors and will continue to seek prudent and responsible ways to reduce the federal deficit."

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