U.S. Rep. Deutch tells seniors Medicare benefits shouldn’t be cut Wellness Health Fitness

U.S. Rep. Deutch tells seniors Medicare benefits shouldn’t be cut

Posted by Hayden Solomon 4 Jul, 2011

BOCA RATON — Gerald Kanovsky, 75, worries Washington politicians, in the midst of negotiations to reduce the federal budget deficit, are going to sell Medicare recipients like him down the river.

U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, who spoke to Kanovsky of Delray Beach and several dozen other people at the Whitehall Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility Tuesday, said he understood why. He pointed to GOP proposals, such as Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan’s deficit reduction plan, that would make Medicare into a voucher program and send seniors out onto the open market looking for health insurance.

The amount of money being proposed isn’t enough to buy the health insurance you need, said Deutch, D-Boca Raton. This is nothing less than trying to balance the budget on the backs of American seniors.

He said neither Medicare benefits or Social Security should be cut by negotiators.

Deutch repeated various times that what he and other Democrats want is a compromise that will reduce spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, but also increase revenue — by ending the Bush era tax cuts for persons making over $1 million and end some subsidies, like tax breaks for oil companies.

Deutch said the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush were meant to be temporary but are still in place, and for those making seven figures it is time to end them.

We should ask them to share in the sacrifice as well, Deutch said. My hope is that, if I’m given a chance to vote on a compromise to reduce the deficit, that there be a real sense of shared sacrifice. If what we are seeing is that everybody is contributing, the people will be okay with it and I will be okay with it.

Deutch said polls had shown broad support across the U.S. for the end of tax cuts for the wealthy. But he warned that many Republicans in Congress, especially tea party-supported members elected in 2010, have vowed to vote against any rise in government revenues, and especially ending those tax cuts.

There are members of Congress who have made it clear they are not interested in shared sacrifice, he said. They don’t want to add any revenue.

In a brief interview after the speech, Deutch said he expected that current negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling would result in a temporary solution before the Aug. 2 deadline, and that we will be voting on this again before too long.

He warned the seniors at Whitehall that, according to economists, not raising the debt ceiling by Aug. 2 would result in a sharp drop in the stock market, affecting their retirement portfolios, and a sharp rise in interest rates that could devastate economic recovery.

John_Lantigua@pbpost.com

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