Political Quotes

“I appreciate the chance to speak this evening. I thank the gentleman for not only his service on that Medicare Commission, but also for tonight, for this special order and some of the information you are imparting. I hope there are a lot of people out there listening, and those of us still in our offices will know, because what you are talking about with the difference in the defined benefit plan versus defined contribution was really one of the cutting edges on which you were talking about as a member of the Medicare Commission. I know you talked about it earlier, but protecting Medicare should be on the top of not just the Democratic agenda, but all our agendas. Ninety-nine percent of our seniors are relying on this program for some type of medical assistance. You talked about some success we had. Over 39 million elderly and disabled Americans, 35 million elderly and 5 million disabled, receive Medicare. Before Medicare, almost half of the elderly were uninsured. That was the fault of the market. No one could afford what the private sector wanted to charge a senior citizen for insurance. People could not afford it. That is why Medicare was created, and that is why it is so important that we talk about the policy debate like you are mentioning and we talk about how important the Medicare program is, because, to me, it ranks right up there with defense of the country, the Social Security system, education of our children and Medicare for our senior citizens.”