Political Quotes

“I am joined tonight by my friends, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone). For the next hour we are going to talk about efforts that the majority party has tried to improve Medicare in this system, perhaps the single best government program of our lifetime, that has brought half the population in this country, really has provided health care for half the senior population. In 1965 when Medicare was created, only about half of America's elderly had health insurance. Today 99-plus percent of America's elderly do. Mr. Speaker, many in Congress have been on a campaign to scare America's seniors into believing that Medicare is going bankrupt. They say that Medicare must be improved in order to save it. Once again, Medicare privatizers are wrong. The Trustees of the Medicare Trust Fund have just reported that Medicare will remain solvent through the year 2015, up from its earlier projection just a year ago of 2008. Republicans in Congress, the Washington, D.C. think tanks, and their media supporters who want to privatize Medicare are wringing their hands over the Trustees' latest report. They believe these new projections will lead Congress to do nothing toward reforming social security and Medicare. With the programs projected to last longer, they tell us we cannot rest on our laurels. The real threat to Medicare, however, is not its alleged pending bankruptcy.”