On the recordJuly 21, 2011
I thank the Chair. I heard what the Senator was saying about Medicare. Am I right about this? I know what some conservative politicians in this town think about Medicare. In 1965 when Medicare passed, it was a lot of conservative Republicans who opposed it. Later--I was in the House then. Senator Harkin was in the Senate. But the first chance that Speaker Gingrich with the new Republican majority had in the mid-1990s, they tried to privatize it. Remember, Speaker Gingrich talked about it withering on the vine. Am I right, with the Ryan budget they tried to privatize Medicare again and the public rose up against it a few months ago, so is this sort of a backdoor way of going after Medicare? They do not want to acknowledge to their constituents they do not like Medicare because 90- some percent of Americans like Medicare and benefit from it. This is this sort of backdoor approach to put these limits on spending so it will force the privatization and unraveling of Medicare and ultimately Social Security and these programs we care about?
