On the recordMay 12, 2011
Mr. Speaker, this past Tuesday, 41 House Republicans sent a letter to President Obama pleading with him to stop the criticism of the GOP's plan to turn Medicare into a private voucher system--a system that would cost future seniors thousands of dollars each year. Let bygones be bygones, these Republicans said. Let's wipe the slate clean. Well, I can't help but laugh at the irony. Last year, in districts all throughout the country, Republican candidates for Congress attacked Democrats for supporting the Affordable Care Act, claiming it cut $500 billion from Medicare-- wrongly, I might add. Fast forward 1 year later, and those same Republicans now in Congress just a few weeks ago voted for a budget that actually embraces the very same $500 billion in savings we found in Medicare in the Affordable Care Act. There's a difference, though. In the health care law, Democrats took that $500 billion and reinvested it in Medicare to increase the life of the program for more than a decade. What did the Republicans do? They take that $500 billion and use it to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and giant oil companies. And Medicare? They dismantle it, forcing future seniors into a new system that will require them to pay upwards of $180,000 more for their care. The American people will not let them forget. ____________________
