Martin Sabo: “I cannot imagine a proposal more devastating to the health care system of this country than the $340 billion tax cut to…”

“I cannot imagine a proposal more devastating to the health care system of this country than the $340 billion tax cut to the well-off which is proposed in the Republican budget. The greatest travesty of this tax cut is that it is being paid for overwhelmingly by cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, cuts that total almost $500 billion. The Republicans cut $280 billion from Medicaid alone. Every senior citizen will experience an average increase of $1,000 per year in health care costs as a result of the Republican Medicare cuts. Cost of living increases in Social Security will be applied directly to increased health care costs. The effect on senior citizens will be a 50 percent decrease in Social Security COLA's to pay for the tax cut that will give 1 million Americans an average tax break of $20,000 a year. Medicare and Medicaid are not bloated Government programs. They are health insurance for approximately 70 million Americans, and they have been pared down and pared down, and the benefits have been pared down each year. Medicare spends less than 3 percent of its budget on administration, compared to 30 percent by the private insurance industry.”