Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from Tennessee, Dr. Roe, for yielding me this time. In New York's District 19, I have been sharing a headline with our seniors and with all of our citizens, which is that the Affordable Care Act ends Medicare as we know it. It ends Medicare as our seniors know it. And you, sir, have stated the reason exactly. The Independent Payment Advisory Board, which was written into law and passed by the 111th Congress, signed into law by President Obama, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, will assure that our seniors, starting in 2015, when they have to make a 0.5 percent cut in Medicare's budget, our seniors will stop having the access to care that they are accustomed to. And they will not be happy about it. And then in every successive year, in 2016 it will be 1 percent; 2017, 1.25 percent; 2018, 1.5 percent, if I have done that math right, Dr. Roe. Our seniors will find that their access to the doctors they know, the doctors they prefer, will not be the same. So when we talk about what we need to do as a Nation, we in the House majority have pledged to our seniors that we will keep the promises that America has made to them, to make sure that Medicare benefits remain secure and safe for as long as they need them, which is why in the budget that we passed in April, the Path to Prosperity Budget, we guaranteed that seniors 65 and above, and in fact our citizens age 55 and above, will not see changes to Medicare as they know it.…”