Nancy L. Johnson: “I recognize myself for 1\1/ 2\ minutes. I do find it really quite remarkable that my colleagues from the other side of…”

“I recognize myself for 1\1/ 2\ minutes. I do find it really quite remarkable that my colleagues from the other side of the aisle, who spent literally months scaring seniors away from signing up for this benefit, claiming it was too complex, claiming it was this and that. I can't tell you how many seniors I had call my office saying oh, I cannot do this, it is too hard. Then when we show them they say, oh, it is not so hard. Fifty-four percent of the people who signed up signed up themselves. The tools provided made it not so hard. Yet colleague after colleague, and I read it in the paper and I saw it, spent their entire time and effort scaring seniors, shameful behavior for elected officials. Of course, now we come to the end and they want to extend the deadline. They should have been out there the last few weeks saying sign up, sign up. Let me tell you, I can't tell you how many we helped. I would just like to remind you that your own bill had an earlier deadline than the bill we are dealing with. So let us pull together, get everybody to sign up. Then let us let the plans deliver the goods.…”