Paul Tonko: “The Republican road-to-ruin budget, if enacted, will end Medicare. It will end the program that 46 million seniors and…”

“The Republican road-to-ruin budget, if enacted, will end Medicare. It will end the program that 46 million seniors and disabled individuals depend upon for their health care. This gross injustice is made immeasurably more egregious and offensive by the fact that this is being done not to balance the budget, but to expand and permanently guarantee even bigger tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and to give new tax breaks to some of the world's most profitable companies. Rather than the path to prosperity, this budget is more like the road-to-riches, a road paved in gold with lavish handouts for special interests, paid for and built with dollars from senior citizens who will see their hard-earned benefits rationed more and more with every passing year. I have heard a lot of talk in the last few months about the need to make tough choices in this budget. Well, the average senior on Medicare earns just over $19,000 a year. About one-quarter of Medicare beneficiaries suffer from a cognitive or mental impairment, and many have at least one or more chronic medical conditions. I ask my Republican colleagues, what exactly is it about stripping these Americans bare of their health and economic security that qualifies as tough? There is nothing tough about stealing from the poor, the weak and the frail to give to the rich. Our seniors, on the other hand, know all about tough choices. Do I buy groceries or do I buy prescriptions?…”