Brian Bilbray: “I am just a freshman. I grew up on the Mexican border. I thought I knew what bilingualism was. Now that I am here in…”

“I am just a freshman. I grew up on the Mexican border. I thought I knew what bilingualism was. Now that I am here in these Chambers, I think we need to warn the American people that what we hear here in the House is not English, it is Washingtonese, when our colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about cutting Medicare. Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely absurd when we look at the numbers, in that what is being proposed by the Republican majority is for each recipient's Medicare funds to go from $400 a month to $561 a month. In plain English, that is an increase. Only in Washington and only with the Democratic minority could they call that a decrease. Mr. Speaker, I think that seniors of the United States know an increase and know a decrease when they hear it. I just hope that when they hear the minority speaking on the other side of the aisle about a cut on Medicare that they start remembering that is Washingtonese for meaning that we are not going to spend three times the rate of inflation on providing health care. No consumer should allow his or her Medicare or health care to increase three times faster than inflation. What we are talking about, Mr. Speaker, is a commonsense approach to increasing our funding, but trying to control the overhead.”