Pete Stark: “this rule paves the way for the cruelest hoax that the Republicans have yet perpetrated on seniors, children, and the…”

“this rule paves the way for the cruelest hoax that the Republicans have yet perpetrated on seniors, children, and the health care system in our country. Forty-seven percent of this bill over 10 years goes to managed care plans without asking the managed care plans to do a thing except raise their own profits and put the money in their pockets. Ninety-four percent of the tax cuts go to people who are already insured. What does that do? That just gives the employers an incentive to cut back on insurance benefits, as they are doing every day. Sure, it helps the rich employers while it penalizes the poor employees. Long-term care tax deductibility. Fifty percent of the seniors are living on incomes of less than $15,000 a year. What does that do for the seniors when we have ignored long-term care benefits that we should have. Children's benefits have been dropped out of this bill. Lou Gherig benefits. Eighty-two Republicans co-sponsored a bill, along with 200 Democrats, to give improved benefits to people with Lou Gherig's disease. It was dropped out. Cruel. Forty-seven percent going to managed care plans, where we do not have any control, where we need the Patients' Bill of Rights. What could we do with that money? We could expand the hospital aid for an additional year. We could expand hospice care for an additional year. We could withhold the 15 percent cut on home health care for an additional year.”