Political Quotes

“I guess, as politicians--all 435 of us--what happens when we get elected is we often read the polls. Hmm, let's see here: 67 percent of Americans are opposed to increasing the age from 65 to 67-- 71 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of Republicans, and 62 percent of Independents. That's pretty overwhelming. So, just to back up to what you were saying a few moments ago about the American public, they viscerally, internally, understand how important Medicare is. It's not just for themselves. They have parents, many of whom are now 65. My mother is 92. She's a Medicare recipient, and she depends upon Medicare for her hospitalization. Fortunately, she hasn't had an incident for more than 2 years now, but when she did, Medicare was there to provide the necessary services for her, and so it is for all of us who have parents who are in the Medicare system. We understand this, and we really want to make it quite clear that, as Democrats, we are in synchronization with the President on this issue. He has put forward specific proposals that over time will reduce the cost of Medicare without taking away the benefits, without changing the eligibility age. However, there are proposals--and I spoke earlier about one that has been put forth by the Speaker of the House--to increase the age to 67. No, that's a nonstarter. I'm not going to go into all the actuarial issues--which I could easily do--about why that makes no sense at all for employers, who would wind up paying more.…”