Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2012
Floor Speech
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Mr. TONKO. I thank my distinguished colleague for yielding.
Mr. Chairman, as indicated in the chart to my right, the Republican Road to Ruin budget ends Medicare and other investments to pay for tax breaks to millionaires and some of the most profitable corporations in the world.
Forty-six million Americans rely on Medicare for their health care today. Under the Road to Ruin plan to end Medicare, seniors and the disabled will lose their guaranteed health benefits. They will be left with a voucher. By design, the voucher cannot and will not keep up with rising health care costs.
The private market views seniors and the disabled as a risky and expensive investment. That's why Medicare was created in the first place. As a result, when the Road to Ruin health plan takes effect--and as this chart again to my right reveals--seniors will see their health costs double. By conservative estimates, seniors will pay more than $12,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for the same coverage Medicare provides today. Facing dramatically higher health costs with less help, our seniors will be forced into life-and-death decisions--do I buy groceries or do I buy prescriptions? Do I pay rent or do I pay medical bills?
Never fear, my Republican colleagues say to seniors, you will get the same care as a Member of Congress. Well, as a Member of Congress, I know that congressional health plans cost about $9,000 this year. Seniors will be getting a ration of $8,000 10 years from now for health care that will cost over $20,000. With all due respect, I must say that the Republican talking point that seniors will get the same coverage as a Member of Congress is not just political hyperbole, it is a lie. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that seniors will pay 68 percent of their health costs under the Republican plan. Members of Congress only pay 28 percent of their premiums. Seniors will pay more than double the share that Members of Congress pay and more than double the amount that they pay today under Medicare.
We have balanced a budget before without ending Medicare. We can do it again. I ask my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the Road to Ruin plan that would end Medicare.
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