Medicare
Mr. REID. Madam President, for weeks Americans old and young have been speaking out against the Republican plan to kill Medicare. It is not just Democrats. Republicans have been speaking out against it too.
Newt Gingrich called it a radical plan and ``right-wing social engineering.'' Several Republican Senators have similarly spoken out, calling it what it really is, a plan that would shatter a cornerstone of our society and break our promise to the elderly and to the sick.
Last night, though, the most important voices were heard. American voters had their first chance to do something about it. They went to the polls and resoundingly rejected that plan and the candidate who ran on that plan's promise to dismantle Medicare.
In a special congressional election in upstate New York, the Republican plan to kill Medicare was the No. 1 issue. It was the No. 2 issue. It was the No. 3 issue. It is what the voters most cared about and were most scared about, as well they should be.
Here is what it would do: It would turn over seniors' health to profit-hungry insurance companies. It would let bureaucrats decide what tests and treatments seniors get. It would ask seniors to pay more for their health care in exchange for fewer benefits. That is a bad deal all around.
What is telling is not just that the voters rejected this plan, it is that the Republican candidate pushing the Republican plan to kill Medicare was rejected in a very Republican district.
The district, which stretches from Buffalo to Rochester, has been in Republican hands for four decades. It produced influential Republicans such as Jack Kemp, whom I served in Congress with. He served in the Cabinet. He ran on the Presidential ticket as a vice presidential candidate.
Last night's special election was held to replace a Republican Congressman who won that seat by a 3-to-1 margin. John McCain won the district in 2008. George W. Bush won the district 4 years earlier. Last year's Republican candidate for Governor in New York lost in a landslide. But he won big in that district. That is how conservative it is.
Democrats in Congress and even some candid Republicans know the Republican plan to kill Medicare is irresponsible and indefensible. Last night voters showed the country and the Congress that they know it too.
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