Date: 2011-07-12
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I am so glad to have the opportunity to join the gentleman from New York and to specifically focus on his leadership. along with my colleague from Maryland. who. as we were developing the Affordable Care Act. worked so hard on some of these finite issues ensuring that we had the oversight over insurance rates. We tried to do everything that we could to produce legislation that embraced the concept of Medicare. for example. recognizing and respecting Medicare and then broadening the concept to ensuring that all people had access to health care. But isnt it interesting just a few months later we are standing in the well of the House and we are literally having to hang on to the commonsense program of Medicare. If I could. I would like to frame the discussion in this manner. You have articulated a very commonsense approach that in any debt ceilingby the way. let me give my editorial comment. I have voted for a clean debt ceiling just simply to pay Americas bills. Unfortunately. that didnt carry the weight of the day. But what I will say is that the discussions that are being crafted in the media. or at least have been perceived in the media that our Republican friends want to provide to the American people. is that we are broke. is that we have no way of doing anything. I want to be very clear. I am aware that Americans are out of work. I am aware that we have had 6 months without a jobs bill and that Democrats are trying to put one on the floor. But I want everyone to know that we have had a significant recovery because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. So we are moving forward except for the fact that we have got to get jobs. We have had seven consecutive quarters where the GDP has grown. So to make our seniors the brunt of what we have made up in terms of saying we have no money. we cannot think any other way. we have to hit someone who has paid their dues. if you will. is simply wrong and unfair. As I have said. we are not where we want to be. but the sacrifices that Democrats have made in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act have put us forward. In addition. we have seen growth. Now we have a budget. First of all. we started off in 2011 with a budget. a Ryan budget. that then suggested that we were so broke we had to voucher Medicare. Frankly. vouchering Medicare is extinguishing Medicare. Its eliminating Medicare as we know it. It is telling a senior that you need a dollars worth of health care. we can give you a quarter. We are going to give a senior who has invested in America. who has worked all of his or her life. who. as my colleague has said. maybe has fallen on difficult times with a 401(k) and certainly that is because markets have gone up and markets have gone down. and you are going to say now you are going to get a quarter. Now bring us forward. That bill. of course. was passed by the House. predominantly Republican. with any number of Members who believe there is nothing wrong with that. It has gone nowhere in the Senate. Now we are at a crucial point where the President has asked for us all to be adults. to sit around the table and talk about how can we work this together. Can we do it with the airplanes and jets? Can we let the Bush tax cuts expire? Can we call upon our friends in the energy industry that is leaps and bounds in profits to craft or to understand a way that we can recraft those particular provisions to bring that money here into the Federal Government? And I would say to my good friends in business. where it might be. the climate of the United States allows you to thrive. You are doing better because you live in a democracy. you live in a place where we respect property. where we dont run into a corporation and say. you know what. I think I am going to take about. you know. half a trillion dollars from you if you have that much. Just send that check over to the United States Treasury. We dont do that. So I want the point to be made tonight that we are on the side of the angels. because it is absolutely ludicrous to not see the difference in life span pre1965. before Lyndon Baines Johnson. a fellow Texan. announced his desire in the Great Society to find a way to. in essence. respect the senior citizens. the elderly. And at that time he was probably looking at individuals in their 60s because of the wear and tear and the lack of health care to be able to give them an extra lifeline. To say that he was right and to make sure. I just want to add these points as I come to a close. to be able to suggest that the millions of seniors who now have access to guaranteed benefits are in jeopardy because of the games that are being played about the debt ceiling. a simple. procedural vote. if you will. that allows the debt ceiling to be raised so that we can pay our bills. something that we have done. if I may put in the RECORD. some 74 times since 1962 with no quarrel whatsoever. Finally. I would argue this: many of those on Medicare are families of veterans. themselves. obviously. may have served. even though I know that they have veterans benefits. But they are people who are willing to sacrifice to build this country. They are seniors. For us to take away this lifeline is unspeakable. And I hope that as Democrats we will draw a few friends. a few reasonable friends to know that there should be no tying of raising the debt ceiling to Medicare. There should be a tie to raising revenue. Thats the commonsense approach to take.