Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011
Floor Speech
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill to repeal the CLASS Act. Last year, we watched as Republicans implemented a slash-and-burn offensive against almost every and any Federal program that helps people. No matter that the program helps women or children or seniors or sick people; let's get rid of it.
Apparently, this year is no different. With this bill, Republicans have set their eyes on the CLASS Act, which when implemented, will help provide some relief to aging Americans as well as to those who love and care for them. The CLASS program was designed to combat the rapidly increasing cost of long-term care, costs that currently account for nearly half of all health care spending in this country, by helping enrollees in this program to afford a variety of long-term care services, such as home modifications, assistive technology, accessible transportation, respite care, home health care aids and nursing support.
Currently, long-term care facilities cost on average $70,000 per year, and home health care aides can cost $25 per hour in some areas. How many middle class families can afford that?
I understand the concerns that my Republican colleagues have voiced. As currently structured, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the program will not be solvent beyond about 2029, about 20 years from now. But what is the Republicans' knee-jerk solution to all budget issues? To trash a program, a necessary program, that will provide much-needed support for seniors today and in the future.
This is completely wrong-headed. We should not destroy this program and ignore the problem. People will still grow older, hopefully, and they will need assisted living, they will need home health care, and they will need accessible transportation. At some point, we are going to have to face this issue.
The current situation, where Medicaid will pay for this but only after the family has impoverished itself and eliminated all their assets, it's not a long-term solution, it's not a tolerable solution. Why should middle class families who have worked all their lives have to impoverish themselves if an elderly relative needs home health care or assisted living or a nursing home?
Our job here is to make people's lives better, to identify problems and to find solutions. We have certainly identified a problem. There is simply no denying that only the wealthiest among us can possibly afford to pay $70,000 a year for a nursing home.
So let's do our jobs. Let's roll up our sleeves and work to make this program better. Let's work to make it solvent, not simply eliminate it. Let's not simply abandon middle class Americans who are scared to death that after working their entire lives and playing by the rules, they will have to bankrupt their children and grandchildren just to have any sense of dignity as they grow older.
This is not the American Dream. We don't want to tell our old people, get lost, get out of sight, go into the poorhouses and the almshouses we had before Social Security. We don't want to tell our seniors, you can't have the health care, the home assisted living, the home health care aides that you need. We don't want to tell our families that you must impoverish yourselves, sell off all your assets because your mother or your grandmother is sick or can no longer live independently.
This is why we have government, to solve problems for all of us that we cannot solve for ourselves individually. That is the reason for government, to provide for the common welfare, as the Constitution says. We know we have this problem. We know as the population ages the problem is going to get worse and more intense, not better. We know the problem is not going to go away. So let's deal with it.
After many, many years, Congress in the Affordable Care Act finally passed the CLASS Act program to start dealing with this. There are problems with it. Yes, the financing that was brought into that program is only sufficient for about 20 years.
That gives us only 20 years to fix the program.
Now, the sooner we fix it, the sooner we amend the financing, the easier it will be to do it. The longer we wait, the harder.
So what do the Republicans want to do? Kill the whole program, put our heads in the sand, ignore the problem, and to heck with the senior citizens and to heck with their children who worry about how they're going to have their parents live their last years in dignity. That is not the American Dream. It is not right.
I urge my Republican colleagues to rethink this. Withdraw this bill. This program is not being implemented immediately. Figure out how to finance it better. Figure out how to deal with this problem. Don't simply say let's ignore the problem and to hell with our senior citizens. That is not the American Dream. We simply must do better.
We've made a start. Let us continue that start. Let us build on it. Let us not destroy the beginnings that we have made.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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