Gilbert Gutknecht: “I want to make certain that my parents get the health care that they need. But I think also, I come at this also not…”

“I want to make certain that my parents get the health care that they need. But I think also, I come at this also not only as a freshman and as someone who has parents who are on the Medicare system, but I come at this also as a parent of teenagers. So there is a generational responsibility I think we have, not only to our parents, but I think we have a responsibility, and a special responsibility, to our kids. For too long here in Washington, politics as usual was 'Well, we will try to patch it over and get past the next election, and then we will worry about it and really solve the problem.' I think the message of last November was that 'politics as usual' just is not getting the job done. They wanted people to come to Washington and really look at the problem; take off the partisan glasses, if you will, and look at the problem, and try to come up with solutions that will really solve it long-term, so that we save the Medicare system, for example. Not just to get through the next election, but so that we save the Medicare system for the next generation.”