I think we really need to be working on those boundaries, and I think that 'as open as possible' is simply not an adequate standard to this task.

We already have proposals to basically wipe out Medicare a decade from now.

are we in morning business? The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Morning business. ____________________

I rise to speak in support of the nomination of John McConnell to be a U.S. district judge in my home State of Rhode Island. I had the occasion yesterday to be on the floor and to associate myself with the remarks of my senior Senator…

It is time to be bold and have this Administration assert what its goal is here, and do that specifically.

I think it might help to put a nice, bright light over that doorway so that everybody knows where it is.

We reward, systemically, the worst performers and we punish the best performers.

Thank you, Chairman and thank you gentlemen for being here.

There is a reimbursement paradox that you experience or your fiscal people experience.

I would strongly urge you to push up into the administration, to invite them to set a goal for you to achieve.

I think everybody who either has, or has a loved one who has multiple conditions is keenly aware of the sense of confusion and loneliness.

I wish to alert my colleagues to an important set of cases that will be heard by the Supreme Court this fall. The cases--consolidated under the caption Maxwell-Jolly v. Independent Living Center--concern the ability of Americans to assert…

We will protect our promises to our seniors.

Under the Republican budget, seniors would lose the new benefits provided by the healthcare reform law.

there is a terrible cost to real Rhode Islanders and to real Americans if we degrade Social Security and Medicare

the Affordable Care Act provided very significant tools to States to improve the quality of care and to save money.

If changes are desired to strengthen Social Security, those changes should be considered independently from work to reduce the deficit.

Let me be very clear. Social Security has paid out every dime owed to all eligible Americans without contributing a thing to the Federal deficit or debt.

It is a little bit out of the traditional order for an official Senate hearing. But this is Rhode Island.

The attack on Medicare also overlooks the most basic fact of healthcare, which is that all healthcare costs are skyrocketing, irrespective of who the insurer is.

My goal in buying health insurance for my employees is never to pay for an MRI twice in one day.

if we are going to go back to privatizing that as was tried a few years ago, hand that over to Wall Street

I commend you for your leadership as a member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

So the role of States and particularly of State officials like Lieutenant Governor Roberts and Director Taylor and Commissioner Koller in working together to have a coordinated strategy on this is really central to the success of this…

The House of Representatives recently passed a Republican budget which proposes privatizing Medicare and requiring seniors to pay the majority of their health expenses with their own money.