Kathy Castor: “I thank our colleague, Representative Capps, for yielding time and for her great leadership on behalf of middle class…”

“I thank our colleague, Representative Capps, for yielding time and for her great leadership on behalf of middle class families across America. I rise to encourage all of our colleagues to get to work on middle class tax relief and also take this opportunity to strengthen Medicare. We're going to have a lot of debates over Medicare here in the coming year. {time} 1340 This will be an opportunity to address a real shortcoming in Medicare, and that is protecting our parents and grandparents and the ability that they have to see the doctor of their choice. See, what will happen if the Congress does not act is there will be instituted very harsh cuts to the reimbursement rate for doctors who take care of our parents and take care of our grandparents under Medicare. We simply can't let this happen. Democrats are interested in a permanent fix to these Medicare cuts to doctors. This is vitally important for tens of millions of our parents and grandparents all across America. And you better believe in the State of Florida, where we have 3.4 million seniors who rely on Medicare, we want to ensure that the ability of the doctor that they trust, that they see time and time again, will be there when they make that appointment in the doctor's office. We're interested in a permanent fix. We think working together we can get this done.…”