"A Win that Every American Can Share In": Boehner Signs First Entitlement Reform in Decades

Joined by House and Senate leaders today, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) signed bipartisan legislation (H.R. 2) to strengthen Medicare, ensure seniors' access to their doctors, and save taxpayers billions. Boehner made the following remarks before signing the bill:

"In a few minutes, I'll sign H.R. 2, bipartisan legislation to strengthen Medicare. At a time when we face serious spending problems, this marks the first entitlement reform in nearly two decades. And it was accomplished by working together to find common ground on behalf of the American people.

"By getting rid of the notorious "doc fix,' seniors will have a more stable and reliable system for seeing their doctor. Families taking care of their parents will have a little more peace of mind. And taxpayers will save hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 20, 30, and 40 years.

"We've also extended the Children's Health Insurance Program and community health centers authorization - doing all of this without raising taxes. So this is a win that every American can share in.

"I want to thank Leader Pelosi for her indispensable leadership in helping tackle these challenging issues. I also want to thank Leader McConnell and Senator Hatch, who led this effort to get it through the Senate. I also want to thank the leaders of the Ways & Means Committee, the Energy & Commerce Committee -- Chairman Upton and Chairman Ryan, Mr. Levin, and Mr. Pallone, and all of the members and their staffs who really worked hard to get us to this moment. And a special thanks to the doctors caucus here in the House, who have been working to solve this problem for a long time.

"You know, about a year ago, after some 17 patches over the last 11 years, I decided that we've had enough of this "doc fix.' And so in recent months, Leader Pelosi and I began an effort to see if we could find common ground. With a lot of hard work by our committees and 484 votes in the House and Senate, we've reached this important moment -- and on the 100th day of this new Congress.

"Now, we know we got a lot more to do to fix these entitlement programs for our kids and our grandkids. But we've taken a good step here, and again, we've done it by finding common ground on behalf of the people that we serve."

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