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Medicaid may not mean anything to the hedge fund people on Wall Street. Medicaid may not
mean much for those that have a lot. But Medicaid matters to every single person here! It matters
to our families and it matters to the welfare of the United States of America! So let’s
hear it loudly. Medicaid Matters! My Medicaid Matters! Medicaid Matters, Medicaid
Matters! Right now we are engaged in one of the greatest
political struggles in the history of this country. On one side we have the wealthiest
people in America who have never ever had it so good. On the other side what we are
seeing is 16 percent of our people unemployed and 46 million Americans who are living in
poverty and that number is growing every single day. So the issue that we have to deal with
right now is to determine whether that Capitol, that government, is there to represent all
of the people and not just the wealthiest and most powerful. In America today, and all
of you should know this, we are the only nation in the industrialized world that does not
guarantee health care to all people as a right. In my view not only should we strengthen Medicaid,
not only should we make sure that children are not thrown off of Medicaid, we should
expand Medicaid and Medicare so that every person in this country, regardless of income
has health care as a right of citizenship. The other path that has been offered is to
refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy, to refuse to raise taxes on big oil and people who have
corporations that outsource jobs or anyone else as the six Republicans of the Super Committee
have pledged to do and that path would lead to disaster.
Where hedge fund managers of Wall Street can make billions of dollars, but here in Washington
we look at Medicare and Medicaid and we have people actually talking about reducing the
benefits. But we are not going to stand for that! No cuts! We are here because you’re
Medicaid Matters! We have to make sure that we make a strong statement that they can hear
all the way on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue there at the White House. That the
White House knows that just because you want to put more taxes on the rich - which is a
good thing- it’s not right to tell the poor people that they are going to have to pay
more because they don’t have any more to give! That’s right my Medicaid Matters!
We are talking about reforming everything in America right now. And there are people
who really are serious about reforming Medicaid. They want to figure out a way to make sure
that we don’t spend unnecessary money in Medicaid. One of the best ways that we could
possibly do that is to make sure that we pass The Community Choice Act because that would
not only give people independence, but it would also save a lot of money. We have been
struggling now for a while with that effort. But that’s alright. Because without struggle
there is no progress, without pain there is no success. And so I would urge you to keep
the numbers growing, because I think the time may be right, right now. A matter of a fact
I know that Senator Harkin is in the Senate and myself and all those in the House. Maybe
we have been waiting for this moment. Because this is the time that rationally, logically,
anybody with any kind of common sense knows that you couldn’t do better than to give
people the independence, the right to be self-sufficient to live at home and have Medicaid pay for
the medical care and the medical care needs that they have.