Paul Tonko: “I would just like to attach my comments to those you have just closed your statement by. This bankruptcy that is driven…”

“I would just like to attach my comments to those you have just closed your statement by. This bankruptcy that is driven by certain catastrophic situations with health care costs are impacting far too many families, and this order of work here in the Congress is about prioritizations. We have spent trillions on war, and we have really diminished the investment in domestic programming, including health care. We come up with all sorts of efforts called sequestration, which is a hidden attack on investments in our domestic agenda. We have to be cautious about how we are guiding those priorities that we are establishing in our budgeting here in Washington, but if we were to prioritize based on where the public demands are, let me suggest, in closing, that I have gone to the Alzheimer's walk in my district for the past several years, and every year, the same statement is made: ``This is the largest crowd ever assembled.'' It keeps growing. It tells me the consciousness of this country, that we want something done for this dreadful disease, doing something that will cure individuals who are walking and living with Alzheimer's and dementia. The people have asked for this by their participation in local fundraising events. Is that the way that we respond to a crisis, by hoping we have good weather on the walk day, that we reach our intended goal that given year, as people are strapped with expenses of caregiving and medications?…”