Federal government must curb spending

    The real problem, however, is that our system is broken. In the last 30 years, our economy has doubled in size. The pie has gotten bigger, but the people cutting it are cutting themselves bigger and bigger slices.
    We all know that one of the greatest challenges before us is reducing our nation’s deficit. We must be serious about that responsibility and understand the urgency of reducing spending. But we have to be smart about how we do it. We have to do it in a way that preserves our economic future and is consistent with our values as a nation. One of those values is protecting our seniors.
    We call them the Greatest Generation because they fought two world wars, beat back communism, sent a man to the moon and created the most powerful economy the world has ever known. Our parents and grandparents knew that if they worked hard and played by the rules, they could count on good benefits and a secure retirement. But that didn’t happen by itself. It took the efforts of hard working people to establish our country’s economic growth. It took a government that had our back, making sure working people had unemployment insurance in tough times and seniors had Social Security and Medicare in their golden years. But all of this is now threatened by the Republican budget.

Balancing the budget on the backs of our nation’s seniors by making huge cuts in Medicare benefits and putting insurance company bureaucrats in charge of health care is dead wrong. The Republican budget means that every single person in Rhode Island under the age of 55 would lose the guarantee of Medicare and be left to fight the insurance companies, who are making profits hand over fist, just to see a doctor, access routine care and even worse, obtain critical surgical procedures.
    In addition, the budget proposal would immediately re-establish the Medicare prescription drug doughnut hole, making those critical prescriptions more expensive for our seniors at a time when they can least afford to pay for them. What effect would that have in Rhode Island? If the budget proposal were to be adopted, it would mean 16,976 Rhode Islanders impacted by the doughnut hole would pay a total of an additional $9.5 million for their prescription drugs in 2012.
    According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Republican plan would more than double the typical senior’s out-of-pocket health care spending over the next decade by more than $6,000. The office also concluded that seniors would get less care at higher costs under the Republican budget.
    Finally, it would leave many seniors in nursing homes at immediate risk because of cuts in Medicaid funding for their care.
    I will continue to fight hard to preserve and strengthen Medicare, and I have taken a strong stand against the Republican budget that ends Medicare.
    Once the assault on Medicare is stopped, we can focus our attention on the resources seniors tell me are the most important to them such as a cost of living adjustment (COLA) in Social Security benefits. There must be a COLA so seniors can meet rising prices for items such as medical care, prescription drugs and housing; and I have co-sponsored legislation to appropriately increase Social Security benefits.

    David Cicilline represents Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District. Contact him at (401) 729-5600 or visit his Web site at www.cicilline.house.gov.