Political Quotes

“Thank you, Congressman Garamendi. And I realize there's congressional districts in California that are probably bigger than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined, so I won't hold it against you too hard. Thank you for taking time on the floor today to spend some time talking about Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This really is the moment of truth right now. Yesterday, the Republican leadership came out with their package in terms of trying to deal with the so-called fiscal cliff, and even though, for months, they have not really fleshed out with great detail where they wanted to see savings, yesterday they did. They came out with a proposal which talked about raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67. They talked about recalculating the cost-of-living-adjustment for seniors who are on Social Security. It's the so-called chained CPI, which would lower the year-in and year-out increase for people on Social Security in terms of keeping up with the cost of living. These proposals really need a full, vigorous debate before the American people before we move in that direction, which I would argue, and certainly you and others here this afternoon, would be the wrong direction for middle class and working family Americans. You know, in terms of Medicare, I think it's really important, historically, to review how Medicare came into existence.…”